Why Do We Call It The Animal Garden?

Stone Bridge left a comment a few posts ago:

"I have kind of a dumb question...why do you call it the animal garden? "

First of all, there is no such thing as a dumb question, but you knew that already, didn't ya?

It's a good question....one that I explained last year, but there are of course new people reading this blog this season.

As you probably all know, we raise laying hens, meat birds and pigs....every year.

Feeding these dang things gets expensive....and besides, we're trying to be more and more self-sufficient as time goes on. We'll never be 100% self-sufficient, but I will settle for growing most of our own food and meat, and making our own fun (the inexpensive kind).

We Really Really Want to stop giving so much of our money over to the Feed Store. Knowledgeable people, yes they are, to a degree. Although once when I was in there to buy lay pellets for the hens, I asked the lady, "What other cheaper ways are there to provide food for them?"

She looked at me like I was insane....oh well, not the first time that's happened! There was nothing, she assured me.

Yeah, right! So I started doing a bunch of book reading and internet surfing to see what I could find.

And since I really like John Seymour's books, I read them over and over and realized we could be growing at least Some of the feed we needed for our animals.

And there it is....the Animal Garden. Yes, it is Bigger than the Main Garden (Human Garden) but then again, there are more Animals here than Humans....

I just hollered to the Gman and he hollered back that the size of the garden is about 40 x 60 feet.

Last year, the Animal Garden was half the size as this year. And we learned that in order to feed 3 pigs, we would need Twice the garden space. So we enlarged it this year...problem is, we also doubled the amount of piggies this season....Doh!

Anyway, here's what I planted in the Animal Garden this year:

10 rows Turnips

7 rows Mangels

7 rows Rutabagas

4 rows Field Peas

6 rows Carrots

2 rows Beets

2 Rows Sugar Beets

2 rows Potatoes

That is a LOT of food....I spaced them all close, squeezing in as many as I could.

So, somewhere around the middle of July, the Gman started doing some thinning down there. We knew that would have to happen...actually we wanted that to happen.

Why? Cuz we could pull out some of the immature veggies, in order to let the remaining ones get a lot bigger. And the ones we pulled? We could feed those off to the animals at an earlier date than having to wait till they got Big. Know what I mean?

Over time, my arm gets better and better. So, today I was the one down there in the Animal Garden, sweating my buns off, thinning and thinning.

Since we will be away from tomorrow late morning until Monday evening, we wanted to have a bunch of thinnings already on hand for the friend who will look after our livestock.

We've got a small freezer down at the barn (we use 3 freezers to hold all our feed - climate and rodent proof = good!) So, today I loaded up that small freezer to the brim.

This is probably about 1/3 of what I picked. But I had already tossed a bunch in the freezer before remembering to take a picture, and I wasn't going to pull them all out, lol....

I thinned turnips, mangels and rutabagas.

You can see that the mangels are already developing some nice roots. They will get a LOT bigger (they can get to about 15 pounds or more). Here I've got the Gman's work glove sitting beside them so you can hopefully get an idea of the size.

Both the hens and pigs go C-r-a-z-y for this stuff....they love all the veggies we toss them.

We still feed the pigs hog grower. Three large coffee cans (2lb cans), twice a day for all 6 pigs (not Each). Now, I know some of you will scoff and think, That's not enough grower (believe me, I've heard it before)....it IS enough grower.

We're not finishing them yet, we are Growing them. And even when it comes time to finish them, we will decrease the amount of room they have to run.....and then feed them Even More Veggies.

The laying hens still get some laying pellets and a bit of scratch and oyster shell. These days however, they are more into the greens, the fancier the better. Seems they're getting a bit Cosmopolitan, the little snobs!

Of course, all animals NEED to have lots of lots of Fresh Clean Water all the time. Clean is important....I scrub out the hens' waterers probably twice a week. You can't let algae crap start growing in their water dishes....they kick dirt in there too, you have to clean them out.....

Rutabagas - these take about 110 days to mature....we pick the thinnings early, maybe thin one more time, then leave the rest to get huge.

Turnips - these take 50 - 70 days to mature. I plant Lots of these, simply because they are quick growing.

And if you leave Turnips in the ground, some of them can get dang huge.....

So, there ya go....that's the story behind the Animal Garden. Plenty of good healthy veggies for our animals....and less money spent at the Feed Store. It's a Good Thing!

Tomorrow, we leave for 2 nights of camping with the Nman and Kgal, then we will go on to Kelowna for the first oncology appointment. Enjoy your weekend!!!

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