Viewing post #660543 by tveguy3

Haven't you heard about my famous weeding chickens??? If you follow any of the threads in the Iris forum, you would have heard all the jokes about my chickens. Anyway, It's not always weed free, but I try hard. I set the rows so I can run the tiller through to keep the major areas weed free. Then I have an Action hoe that I use between the bigger plants and of course it's on my hands and knees to do the detailing. I use the plastic mulch where I can, and I re-purpose tarps that I use to cover hay for mulching larger areas. You can see that in the tomato patch. I'll post a picture of the peppers so you can get a better view of the tarp. I just cut an X in the tarp and plant. I'll also show you my plastic mulch. My neighbor does truck farming on a large scale, and he has a machine that lays this platic mulch. When the roll gets toward the end, he changes it and gives me the remaining plastic. I put it down by hand. I have amazing soil here, very sandy loam base with about 24 inches of very dark top soil. Of course I have lots of horse compost to add to it as well. Dave, your Grand parents live in Elroy? You will have to stop in if you ever come to visit them.

Now about the chickens. In one of the Iris threads a while back I stated that I prenatally train chickens to do weeding. I explained that I made an audio tape that kept repeating the training to the eggs as they were incubated. Of course it was meant to be a joke, but some guy took it seriously. Thought I'd die laughing. Now I keep getting ribbed about my weeding chickens.

Peppers and Egg Plants

Sweet potatoes.