Building a new chicken fence

Poor chickens! They have lived for so long with a sub-par fence, a rotting old piece of chicken wire that is folded over and flimsy. This week, we decided to build our beautiful chickens a whole new fence, complete with a shaded area for the hottest days of summer.

First, we slammed in metal fence posts to define the new border. Then, we attached the fencing to the posts using zip ties. We used pea fencing with approximately 2” holes, which is much sturdier than the chicken wire. Last, we moved the entrance gate so that the little chickens can have some shade. We think they’re really enjoying the addition of approximately two hundred square feet of space.

Compost bin

Beardsley farm is dedicated to sustainability and renewing our resources. One way we accomplish increased sustainability is by collecting compost from a variety of places around Knoxville. Each week, we collect approximately 25 to 30 five-gallon buckets from The Golden Roast Espresso Café, Tomato Head and La Costa restaurants and the Love Kitchen food pantry. Recently, however, we were feeling overwhelmed with kitchen scraps. We had three existing compost bins, none of which were satisfactory to work with.

One day we were so fed up that we threw our buckets down and used our noggins. We decided to use our grant money to build the most ideal and functional compost bin EVER.

For materials we used composite lumber and carpenters’ cloth (a sturdy metal grid with squares approximately ½ inch in size), as opposed to our old compost bins that use wooden pallets or two by fours and larger metal mesh. Despite its higher cost, the composite lumber is preferable to the wood or pallets because it resists rotting and is practically indestructible.

The entire compost bin is composed of three compartments, each 4’ by 4’. The sides of each bin are lined with the carpenters’ cloth and securely fashioned to the lumber with screws and washers. The carpenters’ cloth allows for increased airflow through the compost bin, which promotes healthy decomposition of the compost. The fronts of each compartment consist of several 4” slats sitting on top of each other. These boards easily slide in and out of a track along the inside edge of the bins, which allows us to gradually fill and empty the bins without disturbing the whole pile.

So far, we have been thoroughly impressed with our craftsmanship! The compost pile is heating up to a temperature of 150 degrees, which means it is decomposing quickly and killing off pathogens and weed seeds that we do not want introduced to the garden.

Building raised beds

As part of the Rohm and Haas grant we received in January, we are building raised beds all over the farm and community plots. We are going to use a variety of methods, but our first bed was made of composite lumber made from recycled materials. Boy, did the construction take a long time!

The entire process took two weeks, including about a week off due to inclement weather. As our first raised bed, we learned an awful lot about what not to do when building a raised bed. First, we cut and pre-drilled the pieces of lumber (the pre-drilling turned out to be a bad idea). Next, we assembled the end pieces and dug post-holes to insert them into the ground. We decided that, in the future, it’s a better idea to start in the middle and work outward—it’s much easier to deal with miscalculations this way. Using the clay from the holes we dug, we cemented the end posts into place. Then, we briefly attached the sideboards to make sure they fit, and then removed them to dig the post-holes along the sides of the bed. These posts provide support to the sideboards. We had to use a level and a carpenter’s square to make sure that all the posts and boards were level and straight before attaching anything together. Once all the holes were dug, we cemented them into place using the clay and attached the sideboards. Then, we caulked all the gaps in the boards. Last, we filled up the bed with organic material. Hooray!

Zoo Doo

Beardsley Farm is cultivating a new area of land to turn into a butterfly garden. The final dimensions of the garden will be 60’ by 70’ and the space will also include walking paths, benches and a small pond. Our first step was to till up the ground to make the soil workable. Next we needed to amend the soil by adding organic matter such as compost and manure. These additions provide essential nutrients for the plants’ health.

We contacted the Knoxville Zoo and they agreed to deliver 30 cubic yards of “Zoo doo” to the butterfly garden. The manure is from a variety of herbivorous animals such as elephants and rhinos. The amendment was delivered in a huge dump truck and the smell was unmistakable.

What do you do with 30 cubic yards of Zoo doo? Call together your best of friends to help you shovel, wheelbarrow, rake and spread the enormous steaming mass of poo into an even 4-inch layer across the cultivated surface. With nine totally dedicated and soon stinky people, it took us 3 hours to maneuver the manure. We sure did the doo that day! It took many days of air-drying or thorough washing to get the stench out of our clothing and hair.

The next step toward the completion of the butterfly garden is to till the manure into the soil and then define the paths with metal edging. The paths will then be tamped down and lined and graveled before we start planting the native flowers, shrubs and trees to attract butterflies.