Day 169 - Garden Gold

Once I finished up our trash pile of treasures, I went and used our pitchfork to mix up the compost. I try to move it around at least once a week to keep everything smooth in the decomposition and composting process. With the amount of chicken waste our birds create everyday, the compost area I constructed out of old fence and stumps is in need of expansion. The supply currently dominates the demand.

When we decided to add chickens into our lives, we heard that their waste was wonderful for a garden. When we adopted the new birds, the people we got the birds from had two garden areas. They used chicken poop on one and left the other without. There was a significant difference in these two areas. From what I observed, this was a huge selling point reading more chickens. To have enough garden fuel to be able to help our growing vegetable garden thrive and produce for us was quite enticing.

When I planned and set up our vegetable garden, I put the compost to use right away. Even before planting, I added compost to the soil we had delivered and mixed it up. Then, after planting, I added more compost at different stages of the plant's development to nudge it to the next level.

I had never worked on a garden of this size  but immediately after planting, it seems like the plants were receptive to the conditions. They were getting plenty of sun, we were watering them every day, and they were given plenty of garden gold. Many of the plants showed signs of growth almost instantly. While some were more successful than others, initial signs showed that this garden had the potential to be very productive. We knew we would love to sue as much as possible, but we were also aware the chickens weren't very picky and would be happy to eat any weeds or unwanted vegetables that grew.

The garden was looking great. Almost too great.

With how quickly so many of the plants were growing, we knew that they would be attracting the interest of many friends who might want to enjoy them before we could.