raised bed
The Hebivore Feeding Project Part 2: It's sprouting!
This is a continuation from: The Herbivore Feeding Project
So, here are the pictures of our herbivore feeding table that was described in the previous post (bonus points if you can spot the tortoise and the dog in these pictures).
As you can see, we have some tiny baby greens! It’s all very exciting but as of yet, we have not accomplished any of our three goals: feed our herbivores, save money, and be more earth friendly.
I have high hopes that these tiny sprouts will eventually feed the lettuce eaters of our house, but if we set the buns loose on them now, I’m afraid they wouldn’t even make an afternoon snack. As for saving money, obviously that is not happening yet because we are not feeding the home grown greens. And finally, the earth friendly aspect... We discovered the first possible flaw in our plan here. We mixed too much peat moss in with our compost and soil, so the bed is a little too efficient at retaining water, and thus does not drip down to water the lawn below. Even though this was not the intended result, I’m not sure it’s a bad thing. We have to water the lettuce bed less often than expected, but we still have to water the lawn. Also, because the bed retains so much water, it can get quite heavy, so we have to plan its rotation more carefully then expected.
I’ll post our materials list and plans soon, I just wanted to make any necessary adjustments based on our experiences before I unleash the official version upon the world.
So, here are the pictures of our herbivore feeding table that was described in the previous post (bonus points if you can spot the tortoise and the dog in these pictures).
As you can see, we have some tiny baby greens! It’s all very exciting but as of yet, we have not accomplished any of our three goals: feed our herbivores, save money, and be more earth friendly.
I have high hopes that these tiny sprouts will eventually feed the lettuce eaters of our house, but if we set the buns loose on them now, I’m afraid they wouldn’t even make an afternoon snack. As for saving money, obviously that is not happening yet because we are not feeding the home grown greens. And finally, the earth friendly aspect... We discovered the first possible flaw in our plan here. We mixed too much peat moss in with our compost and soil, so the bed is a little too efficient at retaining water, and thus does not drip down to water the lawn below. Even though this was not the intended result, I’m not sure it’s a bad thing. We have to water the lettuce bed less often than expected, but we still have to water the lawn. Also, because the bed retains so much water, it can get quite heavy, so we have to plan its rotation more carefully then expected.
I’ll post our materials list and plans soon, I just wanted to make any necessary adjustments based on our experiences before I unleash the official version upon the world.
