Can a goat and some hens clear an overgrown allotment?

RacyRed

Mojisola wrote: »

What a good place to live! Lucky you.

Thanks, it is a wonderfull place. Nothing very much to look at, but it has a core of gold.


Edited to add, it is one of the hundreds of what were category D pit villages which refused to die.

(Category D villages were refused development help or planning by the local councils, and were to have been demolished as they emptied - only 3 were lost of approx 260 category D villages)

RacyRed

Well it has been well over a year so I thought it was time to report back

No goats, but I got ex battery hens, they are wonderful!

The process was that I clear the surface of the big stuff and anything harmful, let the chooks loose on it and they then eat everything green then do their archaeology thing and unearth all sorts of stuff. We are happily working our way down the plot.

Chickens clear Japanese knotweed with no problem at all. :T They don't like nettle leaves but love pulling the roots apart. :rotfl:

The only things that stumped the chooks were the old bath tubs, rusted metal things, old beds, a couple of toilets, window frames, mattresses, TVs, radios, photocopiers (?:eek:) and miles and miles of old carpet that I had to clear one strand at a time, masses and masses of broken glass, loads of plastic and many completely unidentifiable objects, large and small. I was lucky that there was a lot of metal showing on the surface and the local scrap metal man was very happy to send in his boys to take as much as they could find. The numerous belfast sinks and a couple of old and surprisingly intact chimney pots now house my herbs.

It has been hard but very enjoyable work and more that 3/4 of the plot is now cleared. The rain has made the plot too sodden to cultivate yet, but I'll get a couple of beds dug and planted before long, next year will hopefully be the first productive vegetable year for the plot. Oh, and the pear trees bloomed this year.

poppysarah

Don't animals need a water supply?

HeatherintheHills

poppysarah wrote: »

Don't animals need a water supply?

Of course I carry it from home to the allotment every day. A couple of those very large plastic milk cartons is more than enough to keep the drinkers full. I collect rain water for the plants.

RacyRed

I cart it to mine in the wheelbarrow, don't need a lot of water for hens.

Do most of you have water supplies on your plots?