Putting Descartes Before DeHorse

Only at Myrtle's place would a picture of a garden plot with nothing in it be considered newsworthy.  But, you're at Myrtle's, so we'll just have to explain why we took this beautiful picture of.... dirt.  See, this isn't just any old dirt.  This is compost, directly from Myrtle and the girls' coop. 

We have written before about the deep bedding method and how compost from said method is the biggest advantage of backyard chicken raising.  Well, here is one of our ten veggie plots, all full of leaves, which is now a New Year's tradition here at ye auld Tea Shoppe and Egg Emporium.  You heard us, you are looking at leaves.  You just thought you were looking at dirt.  About once every 3-4 months, we dig out the coop to a depth of about 2 feet, fill the garden plots, and then backfill the coop with fresh leaves.

We've gardened with other kinds of natural fertilizers before, but to be honest, we're not impressed.  Sure, equine or bovine sources of manure are every bit as nitrogen rich as poultry droppings... but ewwwww!!!  Besides, when has a horse ever assisted a farmer by casually, and on a daily basis, turning its droppings into the rest of the compost material?

We cannot emphasize enough that this is the number one benefit of backyard chicken raising.  Sure, the girls are fun to watch, and yes, the eggs are delicious, but at the end of the day, we are able to harvest more corn, tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc., per square inch in our garden because we have -- for free -- better compost than anybody else in town.

And you really ought to see the festivities when we first put the fresh leaves in the coop.  It's gotten to be such an event for the girls that they start going nuts the minute they see us get out the rakes and the wheelbarrow.  And anytime one of them finds a grub or a worm, there is a mandatory victory lap which is utterly priceless.  At some point, we're going to have to film it.  That, and showing what it looks like when one of the girls licks out the inside of a peanut butter jar.  But we digress....

Happy farming!