Gardens and Coops Make Great Gifts

Casey Rogers had been interested in organic gardening and raising backyard chickens for some time, but it wasn’t until around the time last fall when “Rocking around the Christmas Tree” saw a sharp spike in airplay, that Courtney Rogers decided a coop and garden would make a really cool gift.

The goal was an attractive looking organic garden large enough to yield organic produce year round for the family of four’s dinner table. We went with an L shaped Kitchen Garden style bed measuring 4’ wide by 10’ on the long sides, with a 4’x4’ square bed nestled inside the larger bed.

The Rogers's garden is located on a slightly sloping area on the edge of their property and while it receives plenty of unfiltered morning sunlight, clusters of nearby trees will offer a reprieve from withering afternoon heat in the summer.

The Beds are made with 2x12 Western Red Cedar boards, and filled with a blend of pine bark fines, mushroom compost and Stalite PermaTill. To the soil we add Microfarm Mix : an organic amendment blend of bone meal, blood meal, kelp meal, green sand, dolomite lime, and rock phosphate.

The Rogers’s also wanted a small flock of three to five hens that will provide a dozen or more organic eggs every week. That’s easy enough, but because the Rogers family lives in an upscale neighborhood, the appearance of the coop design in this case was just as important as being sturdy and predator proof.

After getting the green light from the neighbors on a shaded spot nestled just inside the wooded area at the back of their property, the Rogers’ fell in love with the charm of the 4’x8’ Playhouse Coop design, and selected a charcoal gray metal roof, and red cedar colored stain for the exterior walls.  

Rogers Family's 4'x8' Playhouse Coop from Microfarm Organic Gardens on Vimeo.

The framing of the coop is made with red cedar and wrapped with ½ hardware cloth, and the siding is made from sheets of rough sanded cedar T1-11 plywood. We use Timber Pro UV non toxic stains and sealers for our garden projects.

In order to extend the life of the coop and discourage digging predators, we placed it on a base made of 2”x8”x16” concrete blocks.

The Playhouse Coop’s design is large enough to house up to 5 hens and has a human entry door for easy access to clean the coop and top off food & water. Features like the standing seam metal roof panels, all cedar construction, and roost box window and flower box put the design  right at home in even the most upscale backyard setting.

Macronutrients and Micronutrients for Plants

While most gardeners know that all plants require varying amounts of the elements which comprise the three Primary Macronutrients  - Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium - to live a healthy life, the importance of elements classified as secondary macronutrients and micronutrients can be news to even veteran growers.  You may not have realized that calcium, molybdenum and boron are useful to plants in small amounts, but chances are you’ve seen the results of a deficiency in these elements. Strange coloration, stunted growth, and multiple buds in plants can be signs that the soil is lacking in essential macronutrients  and micronutrients.

PRIMARY MACRONUTRIENTS

Nitrogen : Used most out of the three primary macronutrients, nitrogen is the major constituent in chlorophyll and necessary  to encourage strong vegetative growth.

Phosphorous : The second most important primary macronutrient, phosphorous is used for the development of fruits/flowers.

Potassium :Potassium is the third most important primary macronutrient, and typically occurs naturally in the soil. The potassium salts that are necessary for plant cell functioning are referred to as potash.

SECONDARY MACRONUTRIENTS

Calcium : Buffers the soil pH, making it more alkaline, and helps rootlets absorb soil nutrients

Magnesium :  Enzyme activator, and the central element in the chlorophyll molecule

Sulfur : Found in amino acids that make up plant proteins, and activates certain enzyme systems.

MICRONUTRIENTS

Copper :  important for reproduction

Manganese : Works with plant enzymes to help break down carbohydrates and metabolize nitrogen

Iron : Essential for the formation of chlorophyll

Zinc : Regulates consumption of sugar in the plant

Boron : Aids production of sugar and carbohydrates, chlorophyll synthesis

Molybdenum :  Helps the plant capture nitrogen

Chlorine : Required for photosynthesis

Heritage Chicken Breeds

Almost everyone is now familiar with the concept of time tested heritage or heirloom plant varieties, but did you know that the same idea has been in use for chicken and other livestock breeds?  

Since Spanish Explorers first landed on our shores, chicken breeds have been developed for meat, eggs and entertainment, but it was in 1873 that The American Poultry Association first defined and published Heritage Breed definitions in the Standard of Perfection.

The following are criteria for meeting the Heritage Breed standard (Courtesy of the Livestock Conservancy):

APA Standard Breed
Heritage Chicken must be from parent and grandparent stock of breeds recognized by the American Poultry Association (APA) prior to the mid-20th century; whose genetic line can be traced back multiple generations; and with traits that meet the APA Standard of Perfection guidelines for the breed. Heritage Chicken must be produced and sired by an APA Standard breed. Heritage eggs must be laid by an APA Standard breed.

Naturally mating
Heritage Chicken must be reproduced and genetically maintained through natural mating. Chickens marketed as Heritage must be the result of naturally mating pairs of both grandparent and parent stock.

Long, productive outdoor lifespan
Heritage Chicken must have the genetic ability to live a long, vigorous life and thrive in the rigors of pasture-based, outdoor production systems. Breeding hens should be productive for 5-7 years and roosters for 3-5 years.

Slow growth rate
Heritage Chicken must have a moderate to slow rate of growth, reaching appropriate market weight for the breed in no less than 16 weeks. This gives the chicken time to develop strong skeletal structure and healthy organs prior to building muscle mass.

Abbreviated Definition: A Heritage Egg can only be produced by an American Poultry Association Standard breed. A Heritage Chicken is hatched from a heritage egg sired by an American Poultry Association Standard breed established prior to the mid-20th century, is slow growing, naturally mated with a long productive outdoor life.

Are you curious if your hens are Heritage Breed, or  interested in learning more about Heritage Breed chickens before ordering your new backyard flock? Click here to see the Livestock Conservancy’s entire list of Heritage Breed chickens, which includes a history and other facts about each listed breed like egg color and temperament.  

History of the Greenhouse

Like algebra, glass is believed to have originated in ancient Mesopotamia and Persia. Around 2000 BC in the Middle East, sand was being melted and poured into molds for knives and arrowheads.  Over time glassmaking methods improved, allowing for more creative and practical uses, and by 600 BC, glass recipes were in use.

Although glassmaking  still wasn’t advanced enough to produce sheets large enough for use in a greenhouse, that didn't stop Roman Emperor Tiberius’s insistence that his gardeners find a way to cultivate cucumbers year round. Their best efforts yielded the Secularium : a south facing heated cold frame made with pieces of semi transparent mica.

Most historians credit French Botanist Jules Charles with designing the first greenhouse, or glasshouse as they were called then,  around 1600. For the next century, wealthy landowners in Britain, Holland and France experimented with new greenhouse designs.  Because glass could only be made in small panes, the same technique of using lead casings to hold stained glass windows together in medieval churches was used  to install glazing in greenhouses.

Around 1700 wealthy merchants in England began growing warm season plants, including citrus trees in glasshouses. The successful ‘Orangery’ design consisting of a sloping roof, and three glass walls anchored to a south facing brick wall is still in use today. Decomposing manure was used to keep the ground warm in the orangeries, raising bed temperatures to between 110 and 140 degrees. It wasn’t until the late 1700’s when more English growers began to note the contrast of fruits and vegetables in the orangeries to  winter landscape outside that the term greenhouse was first used.

Around the same time, across the Atlantic, George Washington is reported  to have grown pineapples under glass at Mt. Vernon in his own ‘Pinery’ , which he would proudly serve to dinner guests.

Greenhouses became  more common around 1850, when glass could finally be manufactured in large sheets, and was much less expensive. At the time, wrought iron was the framing material of choice, and because of it’s strength, was used to create massive display greenhouses that became centerpieces at botanical gardens in both Britain and the US.

Perhaps the best known of these colossal 19^th century structures is the Crystal Palace, which was built in London’s Hyde Park for the 1851 World’s Fair. Measuring about 410’ wide by 1850’ long, it boasted 19 acres of covered grow area, nearly a million square feet of glass, and featured fountains that could propel water jets 250’ high.

A smaller, but still grand contemporary of the Crystal Palace - The Palm House at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew – was built in 1848 and measured 10’wide by 363’ long and 66’ high.

Because of the constraints of shipping embargoes during the civil war, the early English Victorian conservatory craze bypassed the US, and it wasn’t until the Gilded Age began in the late 1860’s that large scale greenhouses were built here. One notable structure from this era is the 1868 House built by Englishman Henry Shaw, in what eventually became the Missouri Botanical Garden.

The 12,000 square foot Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park was assembled in 1879 largely from parts manufactured and shipped over from Europe.  This conservatory is considered the oldest wood and glass greenhouse in the US, with much of the framing made with the extremely durable Cailfornia Redwood species.  The structure has been completely restored and placed on the National Register of Historic Places after repairing structural damage and removing lead paint and other dangerous  materials.

The fresh fruit and flower market that grew from these early greenhouses thrived and lead to the rapid expansion of greenhouses all over Western Europe.  In the days before produce would be shipped to far flung corners of the world, greenhouses of immense value to local market growers. By 1880, tomatoes were being cultivated under glass in European Greenhouses.

The loss of millions of working men on the Western Front brought decline to  labor intensive greenhouse industry slowed after WWI that lasted until after WWII, when aluminum and galvanized steel became widely available and all but replaced wood in greenhouse framing.  Also, around this time, polycarbonate acrylic and polyethylene sheeting gave growers inexpensive glazing options that also offered more insulating value than glass.

Born from these widely available and inexpensive high performance plastics and metals, the modern greenhouse market has thrived in Europe -  especially Britain where small greenhouses are employed in a seeming majority of garden plots – and is quickly picking up steam here in the United States.

Large, Secure Coop Ready for Full Time Residency

George and Faith’s property perches on the edge of an expansive city park like a pioneer homestead on the Western frontier, and while their flock of three chickens certainly enjoyed the shade from this urban forest, the hawks and raccoons that lived there were more problematic.

Ultimately it was daring daytime raids by birds of prey that snuffed out their first foray into backyard chicken keeping, leaving Faith and George determined to try again from a different angle.

They had fallen in love with all of the perks of keeping backyard chickens, and found the Garden Ark mobile coop to be more than secure while the hens were closed up inside at night.

Faith & George's 10'x14' Garden Coop from Microfarm Organic Gardens on Vimeo.

The proximity to the nearby tract of woods made daytime foraging perilous, though , and George and Faith wanted a secure coop and covered run that was also large enough for a smallish flock of 3-5 hens to live in all the time.

Our solution was an expanded version of the Garden Coop that measured 10’x14’ around the perimeter. Like the Garden Coop, the entire run area is covered with tinted polycarbonate roof panels, which help keep the hens warm and dry in winter months and cool during the summer.

The entire structure is framed with Western Red Cedar, and wrapped in 1/2” galvanized hardware cloth. To thwart nocturnal digging predators like raccoons and rats, hardware cloth was also buried a foot deep around the entire perimeter of the coop.

The roost box is wrapped with T1-11 exterior siding stained with a non-toxic transparent stain from Timber Pro UV.

George and Faith understandably wanted to harvest rainwater from the coop’s 192 square foot roof, so we installed an aluminum gutter and downspout, and connected a rain barrel that they had on hand.

The next box of baby chicks won’t arrive for several more weeks, so for now their new coop stands empty. But though it’s hard to forget the tragic end to their first flock, George and Faith are excited about the next chapter in their urban chicken adventure, and even  more confident in their larger new coop.