Bobbie Mabe's Garden Coop

Like most new chicken owners, Bobbie Mabe thought it best to start out with a small, simple coop that came boxed as a kit.  Makes sense….you wouldn’t buy a fender Stratocaster if you just started taking guitar lessons, right?

But as often happens with the smaller, pre-manufactured chicken coop kits, the Mabe family’s hens quickly outgrew the tiny enclosure. The lack of adequate coop space was hard enough, but it took the tragedy of losing one of the family’s five hens to a raccoon one night, that prompted Bobbie to find a coop design that could give her hens much more space, as well as sturdy protection from predators and the elements.

The Garden Coop design has all of the above plus a really clean, modern look to top it off. The much larger floor plan gives each bird over ten square feet of space, which means that the hens can comfortably stay in the coop for days at a time when the family is away on vacation.

The coop is framed with Western Red Cedar and elevated on concrete piers to minimize damage from ground moisture. The entire floor plan is covered by tinted polycarbonate roof panels which will keep the birds dry in freezing winter rains, and offer protection from searing summer sun.

The Garden Coop frame is wrapped with ½” galvanized hardware cloth, which is buried about a foot deep around the entire perimeter of the coop. This will ensure that the hens will always be safe from even the most persistent nocturnal, digging predators.

The design also features a hardware cloth ceiling which both improves ventilation and allows plenty of sunlight into the coop.

The human entry door makes it easy for the family to access the coop for cleaning & feeding, and the slide bolt ensures it stays securely closed at night.

The hens really appreciate the live branches for the perches and ladder, and they also give the coop an earthy, natural touch.

Interested in having a Garden Coop built for your backyard flock? click here to learn more.

Fall Planting Guide for the NC Piedmont Region

Have the summer heat and insects already got you dreaming about growing cool season Brassica family crops like Brussels sprouts and broccoli? Remember that while these and other popular ‘Fall’ cultivars like collard greens, kohlrabi, cabbage and kale do thrive in cooler weather, they must be planted in mid to late summer here in the NC piedmont, in order to successfully yield in the autumn months.

Brussels sprouts, for example, need 100-120 days to fully develop, and must be started mid-summer in order to be ready to harvest in late October or November.

Much of the reason for starting these varieties (as well as root vegetables and even some leafy green varieties)  in some of the hottest months of the year has less to do with temperature, and more about daylight. Cultivars that need several months to develop, like cabbage and cauliflower, must be established when the days are long In order  to achieve the necessary amount of vegetative growth before the cooler nights, and shorter days ahead where growth slows down significantly.

But a broccoli or Brussels sprout planted in September would still grow, right? Sure, they would grow some in size, but actual yields of broccoli florets or Brussels sprouts would be disappointing because the shorter days in November and December would prevent the plant from fully developing until next spring, if at all.

The planting guides below are specific to North Carolina, but note that unless where specified on the Wyatt Quarles guide, the recommended planting dates in the Wyatt Quarles and NC State Extension office are for direct sowing seed. Many of the suggested cultivars in the Wyatt Quarles and NC State guides are not open pollinated or heirrloom varieties, and if you're interested in saving seed, or simply want to grow heirloom varieties, check out the seed catalogs at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange or Sow True Seed - both of which have heirloom cultivars that are well adapted to the mid atlantic region.

The dates in our own fall planting guide, shown at the top of the list, are for transplants, unless specified as direct seed.

July 15 - August 15

Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cauliflower
Cabbage

August 1 – Sept 1

Kale
Kohlrabi
Collard Greens
Chinese cabbage
Beets
Leeks
Lettuces
Onion Sets
Radish (seed)
Rutabaga (seed)
Carrot (seed)
Turnip (seed)

Sept 1 - Oct 1

Beets
Lettuces
Spinach
Kale
Mustard Greens

Oct 1 - Nov 1

Lettuces
Spinach

Function Meets Curb Appeal : The Leoni Family's Organic Garden

For several years the The Leoni family’s landscape has been evolving almost as fast as their appetite for locally grown organic produce.  They’re plans for a completely revamped backyard included an organic garden, but strict community regulations meant that, in addition to growing  organic produce, their backyard garden also had to meet  the neighborhood’s  high standard for aesthetic appeal.

The design we made for the Leoni family features a large, L shaped raised bed for growing vegetable varieties, with a smaller, square shaped bed perfect  for culinary herbs.

 The Leoni family’s raised beds were made using  five layers of Western Red Cedar 4”x4” timbers, which gave them a depth of about 18 inches.  The beds were filled with a blend of pine bark fines, mushroom compost, and Stalite PermaTill, and amended with Microfarm Mix ; a blend of Dried Blood Meal, Bone Meal, Kelp Meal, Green Sand, Rock Phosphate, and Dolomite Lime.

To create attractive, functional pathways around the beds, we installed heavy gauge steel landscape edging in a perimeter around the beds. In order to control weeks in the walkways, we first pinned down premium grade professional landscape fabric, then covered it with two cubic yards of small glacier pebbles.

By the end of the day, the beds were planted and glacier pebbles raked smooth…and the Leoni family finally had  an attractive and functional organic garden that the neighbors will enjoy almost as much as they do.

Meet the Indian Neem Tree... "The Village Pharmacy"

While relatively new in the Western world, all parts of the neem tree – referred to as the ‘Village Pharmacy’- have been used in India for thousands of years.  We use neem oil in horticultural applications to control insect pests, but it is also increasingly used worldwide as an insect repellent, skin care ingredient, contraceptive, and medicine with hundreds of uses.

There’s lots of buzz about neem oil, and other products from the exotic Indian tree, but less so about the tree itself. So what's the scoop on the Neem tree?

Azadirachta indica  is the botanical name for the neem tree, and translates as "The Free Tree Of India"

The neem tree belongs to the botanical family Meliaceae; the same family as the mahogany tree.

It’s an attractive, fast growing shade tree that can with spreading branches with dark green leaves that form a dense, round canopy, up to 60’ wide. The neem tree can grow to 100’ tall but typically tops out around 30’-40’

The neem tree has large clusters of aromatic flowers made up of up to 250 individual white blooms that can be smelled miles away.

The olive like, fruit is oval to round and thin skinned, and while edible, is not especially tasty. Every neem fruit contains one, and sometimes two or three, seeds.

The Neem tree is easy to grow in a wide range of temperatures and conditions, and can live for 150+ years.

Mycorrhizae : The Friendly Fungus

Imagine a sprawling underground network-invisible to the human eye- that would allow your neighbor’s apple tree across the street to share nutrients with the tomato plants growing in your backyard. It’s real, and made possible by a beneficial soil fungi call mycorrhizae.

Scientists believe that mycorrhizae are one of the main reasons plants were able to make the transition from sea to land millions of years ago – helping plants make the drastic transition from nutrient rich ocean life to a harsh, salty land environment.

Mycorrhizae work by creating an extensive network of microscopic filaments that allows nutrient transfer among plants.  They penetrate growing plant root tissues, surround the root mass, and extend far into the surrounding soil, encompassing a much larger volume of soil than is occupied by the plant’s own root system. The fungi’s long threadlike mycelia take in nitrogen, phosphorous, and other nutrients from the soil, consuming some but also generously sharing these nutrients with the host plant.  In return, the plant provides the mycorrhizal fungi with photosynthesized nutrients like sucrose, fructose, and glucose.

While helping plant roots absorb more nutrients, mycorrhizae also improve drought tolerance, and help create ideal soil structure ; aerated soil with good drainage that maintains optimum moisture levels.  The much sought after crumbly, black loam soil texture is the result, in part, of the presence of long term mycorrizal activity. Their long hair like  filaments called hyphae accumulate in the soil over time, and bind larger, sand sized,  soil particles together, helping create friable, high quality soil.