gardenweed_z6a: Yeah tomato plants love worm castings! I used them last year. I had no trouble with the blight I heard so much about. Of course I raise my own seedlings.. they are mighty with the worm casts! :) Nested 5 gallon buckets are super easy to use as worm bins. I forgot to put the lid on for a couple days on them and no worms tried to escape. They don't like light, so they dig down. No worries on that! I have not tried setting the buckets to meet so the worms crawl up, but that's a great idea if we can figure out a way to allow drainage and contact to the bucket above. Maybe a tall dual open-sided cake pan to create an inner worm compound and allow air space around the side of the bucket for so the center of the bucket will be more like a core of worm composts and the worms work their way up to the top into the top bucket. Maybe a 3 bucket setup is what we need so the bottom-most bucket is the be-all-end-all to collect the drippings. Now I am really interested in trying this. It's a bit of a chore to separate the worms from the casts, so if we can figure out how to do this same thing "on the cheap" (it's already cheap if you get free 5 gallon buckets) this will be even better. I recently emptied one of my bucket bins. Here's some photos: From 022810 One bucket after 1 year of constant feeding of primarily banana peels yielded 14 cups of casts! I have not harvested from the other bucket bin, but it is easily another 14 cups of castings! From 022810

Hey haven't seen you around in awhile 3orangeboys! Good to have you back! As for the larspur I was really disappointed. I planted two different kinds of them and in one bed a few really small straglers that may or may not bloom. The second bed I have 3 blooming now and a few others that are about to bloom but no where near what I was hoping for. I really think both the weather and the heavy rains right after I sowed them had a lot to do with it. I'm going to sow some next spring as well and hope I get a better show. Here are a few purples that are blooming but their are some others that haven't bloomed yet. Meghan

Bernd, While that is true about baits, the extent to which each is toxic differs significantly. The pet deaths that have occurred with Iron Phosphate baits are a result of pets eating a significant quantity of the stuff by getting into a bag full and eating it. Methaldehyde baits have bitrex added which makes them bad tasting to mammals. However, just a small amount of Methaldehyde can be fatal for pets. The label on Bug Geta says that a user must keep pets and small children out of the treated area from the time that the bait is put out until the time it is no longer visible. Since I can't do that, I choose not to use it. I think you are right, though, it's more effective than Iron Phosphate. Steve

Yep, DragonflyWings, you've got the idea! When I envisioned mine, the coop was outside the moat, but I like your idea better. I'd put a door in the back of the coop that leads outside the moat and garden to make it easy on you to gather the eggs, fill feeders, clean out the coop a couple times a year, etc. But I love the idea of building it a little extra-big to also use for a garden storage shed! Genious! That would let you store feed in there as well. Speaking of that, get a galvanized metal garbage can to store the feed in ~ rats can't get to it then. The entrance wasn't fenced off though in the one I've been thinking about ~ two gates, yes, but just go through one and close it (now you're inside the moat), then go through the other (now you're in the garden). I don't think many grasshoppers would make it through the "unguarded" gate area, but fencing off those two "ends" of the moat would be unnecessary work (I'm lazy when I can get away with it ;). If you don't have a huge amount of chickens, you won't need to clean up after them in the moat (under their roosts in the coop, yes, but that's concentrated in one spot and easily wheelbarrowed to the compost pile a time or two a year). Their poo will just fertilize whatever grass grows in the moat. If you have too many chickens, they will likely eat and trample down anything green in the moat and poop a good bit as well (enough that would need some sort of cleanup eventually), so I'd keep the number small at first and see how they do. I'm guessing the garden plot in your layout picture is about 25'x25'? If so, maybe start off with just three or four chickens and see how that goes. If everything stays really green and you'd like more eggs (or they're not getting all the grasshoppers before they get through to the garden), then get a couple more. Yes, mine go back in the coop at night (atleast the chickens do ~ guineas have been testing my patience lately, wanting to roost in Grandma Wall's old catalpa tree *Grrrrr*) and I close the door to keep raccoons, foxes, opossums and coyotes (and big neighbor dogs ~ *sigh*) from getting in there to them. For your situation where you have to be gone, I'd build a strong fence and cover it equally as strongly. By strong fence, I mean something twice as strong as you think you need to, something strong enough none of the aforementioned critters could get through. Remember ~ those critters have nothing to do all day except sleep, poop and figure out how to get your chickens. They can decimate a large flock in a matter of hours (small flocks in minutes), so you need to make this whole thing really strong and varmint proof. Luckily, that's not that hard to do. Strong posts two feet in the ground (t-posts won't work too well), preferably wooden or metal pipe ~ three feet in the ground at the corners, h-braces at the corners, too. Line the bottom of the chicken wire with 2x4s (along both fences) and nail the wire to it, then patrol for signs of varmints trying to dig under it. If you find any holes or beginnings of holes, lay some hog panels down along the outside of the fence and attach them very well to the 2x4s (like wire them to it with strong wire and wrap each wrap of wire only six inches apart). Hog panels are rigid wire panels like those 16' cattle panels, but with smaller holes towards the bottom ~ it's these smaller holes you'll want to put up against the bottom of your chicken fence since the big holes will still allow a small animal through. Or you can use any type of panel your local hardware/farm supply store carries, so long as the holes from the bottom up for atleast a foot or two are small enough that a cat couldn't get through ~ that'll be small enough to keep most everything else out. How long will you be gone at a stretch? If only three days or so, you could get a large feeder and auto-watering can and they'd be fine for that long. I have a dozen chickens and half a dozen guineas and work long hours for three days a week. During those days, I don't let them outside (since I won't be here to keep an eye on them) and don't have time to fill feeders or waterers (unless I have to), so two large hanging chicken feeders (each holding over a gallon of feed) and two large chicken watering cans (about three gallons apiece I think) work fine for that long. I just make sure they're completely full the day before I start my workweek. So try the smallest sizes at those links above and keep a close eye on them at first, preferably when you can be around to check every other day atleast. If they empty out too quickly (with only three hens and three days I doubt seriously that they will ~ bet they last a week), just buy another to add to the coop (that's what I did). Once it gets hot, the eggs should really be gathered every day. Unwashed fresh eggs can sit out on a kitchen counter for weeks before they go bad, so a few days in a coop may not hurt, but I'd be extra vigilant in watching for any signs of "offness". For sure float-test the eggs before you use them to make sure none are bad ~ just put them in a bowl, cover with water twice as deep as they are, and any that float to the top I'd get rid of (my dogs LOVE them and they're good for them). Another tip ~ you don't need a rooster to get eggs, so if your moat will only hold three chickens, you could have all hens. Some say a rooster makes the hens a little happier (if he's a nice one and not a meanie), but he's certainly not needed. And one more tip: Go read The FeatherSite's Poultry Pages for oodles of info on chickens. You can read about breeds there in their breed directory and see real pictures of real chickens, not just drawings like they have in the hatchery catalogs. And about how to brood new chicks, hatch your own, build coops, feeding, watering, and all sorts of other stuff. GREAT site. Sorry this post is so long, but I LOVE talking about chickens. *snicker* Get them. You'll LOVE them.