Our chickens are very useful pets.  They provide chicken compost for my garden, eat all the food that my children waste, and provide eggs for us as a bonus!

I loose some eggs as my eager helpers are still in training, but that is part of the fun.

I clean their coop out four times a year.  I place fresh straw in the coop at the beginning of each season and then harvest it at the end and put it on my garden or berry bushes.  I also give them all my organic grass clippings and fallen leaves.  They love to dig through them and it makes a really nice garden compost.  The straw does send up some weeds, but they are easy to pick out.

We are in the process of building a chicken run.  This way I won't feel guilty about not always letting them out to run around the garden.  Sometimes I appreciate the bugs they eat in the garden.  This year, they ate all my newly planted lady bugs!  That makes for expensive chicken food!

There are at least three reasons to rotate crops.  

• To minimize pests
• To discourage Diseases
• To build soil fertility

To understand how to rotate, one must understand what families each plant belongs to.  Plants within families tend to have the same pests and use the same nutrients.  This is the best chart I have seen for identifying plant families at a glance.  It might not be easy to guess that peppers and potatoes are in the same family!

Family Name	Aliases	Members
		Crops	Ornamentals	Weeds
Solanaceae	solanaceous crops; potato, tomato or nightshade family	peppers (bell and chile), tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, tobacco, tomatillo	petunia, million bells	nightshade, jimsonweed, henbane, groundcherry, buffalobur, horsenettle
Brassicaceae	Cruciferae; brassicas; cole crops; cruciferous crops; mustard family	horseradish, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kohlrabi, kale, Brussels sprouts, turnips, Chinese cabbage, radish, rapeseed, mustard, collards, watercress, pak choi, bok choi, rutabaga	stock, alyssum, candytuft	shepherd's-purse, field pennycress, yellow rocket
Cucurbitaceae	cucurbits; cucumber family; squash family	cucumber, melons, watermelon, summer squash, pumpkin, gourds, winter squash
Rosaceae	rose family, rosaceous plants	apples, peaches, apricots, nectarines, plums, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, pears, cherries		multiflora rose
Fabaceae	Leguminosae; leguminous crops; legumes; bean, pea or legume family	beans, peas, lentils, peanut, soybean, edamame, garbanzo bean, fava beans, hairy vetch, vetches, alfalfa, clovers, cowpea, birdsfoot trefoil, black medic		various vetches, clovers, black medic
Poaceae	Gramineae; grass family	corn, wheat, barley, oats, sorghum, rice, millet, rye, ryegrass, sorghum-sudangrass, fescue, timothy	ornamental grasses	brome, wild oats, crabgrass, orchardgrass, barnyardgrass, quackgrass, fall panicum, foxtail, Johnsongrass
Polygonaceae	Knotweed family	buckwheat, rhubarb		knotweed, smartweed
Liliaceae	lily family; alliums (for members of the Allium genera)	asparagus, onions, leeks, chives, garlic, shallot	tulips, daffodils, hosta, hyacinth, daylily	wild garlic and onions
Lamiaceae	Labiatae; mint family	lavender, basil, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme, mints, catnip	salvia, Molucella (bells-of-Ireland)	mints, catnip, henbit
Ericaceae	heather or blueberry family	blueberries, cranberries	rhododendrons, azalea, heather
Chenopodiaceae	goosefoot family	spinach, beets, chard, sugar beets		kochia, lambsquarters
Apiaceae	Umbelliferae; carrot family	carrots, parsnips, celery, dill, chervil, cilantro, parsley, caraway, fennel	Trachymeme, Buplerum	poison-hemlock, wild carrot
Asteraceae	sunflower family; aster family, Compositae	sunflowers, lettuce, endive, escarole, radicchio, dandelion, Jerusalem artichoke, artichoke, safflower, chicory, tarragon, chamomile, echinacea, sunflowers	marigold, mums, zinnia, aster, Calendula, cosmos, Rudbeckia, Tithonia, Centaurea, Helichrysum, yarrow, Leucanthemum, echinacea, sunflowers	dandelion, Jerusalem artichoke, chicory, echinacea, thistles, knapweeds, cocklebur, yarrow, ragweeds, goldenrod, groundsel, galinsoga, sunflowers

Originally printed in Virginia Vegetable, Small Fruit and Specialty Crops – May-June 2005.

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Virginia Cooperative Extension materials are available for public use, re-print, or citation without further permission, provided the use includes credit to the author and to Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Tech, and Virginia State University.

Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia State University, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture cooperating. Alan L. Grant, Dean, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Edwin J. Jones, Director, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg; Jewel E. Hairston, Administrator, 1890 Extension Program, Virginia State, Petersburg.

August 17, 2009

http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/2906/2906-1393/2906-1393.html

Of all the trees I have planted, the prettiest one is a Fuji apple tree I planted four years ago.  We are adding a room onto the back of our house with a basement.  The dimensions are 20 by 32 feet.  Unfortunately, the tree is in the way.  There is a good chance it will not make it, but I want to try anyway.  

We dug a hole with a backhoe.  I threw some wood chips in to get the "hugelkultur" affect.  Then I put in some blood and bone meal and even a few tree stakes.

 Then we dug around the tree and wrapped it to preserve the root ball.  

We lifted it up up and moved it into the new hole.  Then we unwrapped it and buried it up.  

I have watered it well over the last twenty forty eight hours and it is looking a little wilty.  I trimmed it and added a tablespoon ( that was all that was left in my bottle) of rooting hormone.

It is now the middle of July and this is how the tree looks.  Very dead!

I have been reading about shock planting and Sep Holzer's method of transplanting trees.  This has given me hope that perhaps this tree will make it.  http://www.bookofkin.info/how-to/garden/sepp-holzer-permaculture-how-to-transplant-fruit-trees/

Only time will tell!