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Goat Pen for garden space

DesertChris

DesertChris

So........
I have a 1269 sq foot goat pen that has been used by several goats for years, but a couple months ago I relocated the goats to a different, larger, part of the yard.

The "soil" is sandy, clay ancient lake bottom (in the high desert of Southern California) with years of goat poop and pee "amending" it.

Our main garden space is 1600 sq feet of the same "soil" but with 12" of added topsoil from a cow holding area that was pooped on for a couple decades, and everything grows great there.

My question is would this recently retired goat pen be a great place to grow my peppers this year?
Or would it be too rich in nutrients?
Would this be a better location for tomato growing?
It will have been unused by goats for about 5-6 months before planting in the ground, and I plan on some serious rototilling.

Also, I have a second area I am going to plant (the cow holding area) that is about 2000 sq feet, but it is way too far from the house to admire the pepper plants more than once a day, and I like to look at them as much as possible. So that will be used for various squashes, zuchinnis and melons etc....
 
heck yes.. do it.. just do the rototiller plan..it really all depends on the topsoil if any and how much "poo" is tilled in. if there is any question just add more soil from another area to the tilled plot and you should be good
 
howardsnm1 said:
heck yes.. do it.. just do the rototiller plan..it really all depends on the topsoil if any and how much "poo" is tilled in. if there is any question just add more soil from another area to the tilled plot and you should be good
Click to expand...

Thanks!
I am a bit gunshy to put all my peppers in one untested spot, so I just potted up a "Butch T" in some of the soil from the pen as a test run....
It is the worst potting soil ever since it is way too sandy, but fine for plants in the ground.
Anyway, it is the one on the left in this photo, next to a "Butch T" in regular potting soil.
I figure I can compare them and see how they do for a bit, since I can't actually put plants in the ground until the end of april or beggining of may, due to danger of frost here.

IMAG1453_zps4533f536.jpg


I guess I could call my test plant the "Goat T" :)
 
armac said:
I like the exact square footage of the goat pen......very nice.
Click to expand...

I went out and measured it this morning...mainly to compare the size to the main garden area from last year.
it is an 18'8" x 68' rectangle :)

And next, I get the joy of cleaning out the chicken coop and figuring out which garden space to add all the chicken manure, veggie scraps and other debris, to
 
Here's a few thoughts and questions - and take them for what they're worth, I'm an experienced gardener who is fascinated by something called permaculture, but just a beginner in that, so...

First, I'm wondering if that goat pen has been hit pretty heavy by the goats? Is there any vegetation left?

I would not worry so much about the hot nutrients as the sandy and possibly bare, compacted soil. Not sure how much water that will hold, and eventually nutrients wash away as well with nothing to hold them in place.

Second, the more I hear about tilling, the more I'm leaning towards stopping it for my own use. It not only breaks apart the fungal life in the soil, but it also gives the soil a huge shot of oxygen, which makes some growth explode, then the micro organisms eat them, then the food supply is all gone, so everything (micro-organism wise) dies. It's a short term boost, long term problem, from my understanding. I would think this would only be accentuated by your soil.

So my thoughts... mulch. It sounds like you have a bit of land. Can you mulch up a bit of brush or shrub or something? Or chip up a dead tree? Or find a tree service with tons of mulch they need to get rid of? This would do a few things: first, the carbon in the wood mulch would offset any concerns of nitrogen burn from the goat manure. Second, it would hold in water a ton better, as well as add some organic biomass to your soil structure. I think it would help bring in worms and other good stuff under the surface of your soil, which in turn would help with the compaction. I think this would help make your soil on its way to awesome. However, I'm from Michigan, so I'm very unfamiliar with land in your area.

Just my 2 cents (or more).

Anyway, good luck and I'll be curious how it all works out for you whatever you do.
 
OK, so 9 hours later, and my test plant, the "Goat T" (Butch T) looks great :)
Not sure how long fert burn takes to show, so we'll see....

Wow Pulpiteer, good ideas you have, thank you!
The property is 2 1/2 acres, so plenty of room to play, but only have water plumbed to half of it.
The goats job here is to eat all the unwanted desert plantlife, so that goat pen is bare as can possibly be! Not even a twig in sight...lol
I dug a bit up to pot that plant, and there was bits of uneaten hay decomposing in there, so I figure it's a good sign :)

The cool thing is we collaborate on the garden with our super cool family next door, and they are friends with the guy across the road....who just happens to own and run a landscaping company from his home! So we might be able to get a big ole pile of mulch for free or little cost :)
 
OK, The "Goat T" Test Subject still looks great :)

I was thinking I could just till each plant location, and maybe mix in some mulch or perhaps some straw to loosen up each planting spot.

Dang, I can't wait till late april /early may when the frost danger is over, and I can finally get stuff into the ground!!! Until then I guess I will fill the house with germination trays and seedlings.....I just hope my gal doesn't get fed up and make me sleep in the potting shed (she is already threatening that) hahahahha
 
Do you have a "rainy" season before it gets warm enough to plant? If so, I'd throw the mulch on asap. Then just dig through it to plant the peppers, make a big enough hole to amend your spot with compost. Do you have a spading fork? That would help you loosen up the soil at each spot you dig out. That way you won't have to till at all, but you'll still have the soil loosened deep at each planting hole.
The reason I'm suggesting that you put the mulch on now is so that you can trap all of the moisture possible when the spring rains come. That moisture will jump start everything with the mulch on it.

Again, take it for what it's worth.

Are you doing a glog? I've been meaning to get back on the glog section soon, and I'd be interested following how this turns out for you.
 
Not much of a rainy season here, but what could be considered to be it for us is march and april.
I need to run the water pipe out to the Pen, and put in bubbler heads, then kind of plot out the plant locations.
Luckily we have a nice deep well, so regardless, I can water the heck out of it when I prepare it for planting.

I do have an extra pointy pitchfork, I bet it would work well to poke down and loosen stuff up.
Definately need to work on getting that mulch!

I'll be starting a glog in a bit, but want to firm up my grow list, and obtain some more seeds (quickly lol)

Oh, forgot to mention....day three and the test subject "Goat T" is still looking great :)
 
i think with the goats living there they will most likely have packed the dirt down pretty hard (think sheep's foot roller), i suggest you break up the soil well (and deep) before you plant.
 
DesertChris said:
Not much of a rainy season here, but what could be considered to be it for us is march and april.
I need to run the water pipe out to the Pen, and put in bubbler heads, then kind of plot out the plant locations.
Luckily we have a nice deep well, so regardless, I can water the heck out of it when I prepare it for planting.

I do have an extra pointy pitchfork, I bet it would work well to poke down and loosen stuff up.
Definately need to work on getting that mulch!

I'll be starting a glog in a bit, but want to firm up my grow list, and obtain some more seeds (quickly lol)

Oh, forgot to mention....day three and the test subject "Goat T" is still looking great :)
Click to expand...
If you're in need of some Brain strain or 7 pot yellows, I have some extra seeds - they're open pollinated so not guaranteed to grow true, but if you want them send me a SASBE and they're yours. Just PM me if you're interested.
 
Wow, Thanks Pulpiteer! If the Brain Strain is red, then both of those aren't on my crazy growlist yet, and I would love to add them into the insane planting frenzy :)


We are really stepping up our gardening this year since last years"extreme Desert Gardening" experiment went great.
We contend with wierd compacted sandy soils, crazy winds and crazy hot temperatures etc....

We share the garden/gardens with our super cool neighbor family, and share the expense and work, so we feed 2 families with the produce.
Although the Hot peppers are pretty much for me and our 16 year old boy. My gal likes up to medium hot stuff, and the Husband next door will eat up to a Habanero in small quantities.

So anyway, here is my Super ambitious and still tentative pepper grow list (as long as all the purchased/ordered last night seeds, and kindly offered seeds from a couple members here, all make it in the mail)

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Overwintering:[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Serranos[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Jalapenos[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Orange Habaneros[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Poblanos[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Banana peppers[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Cayennes[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Unknown but tasty Medium Hot Red Mystery Pepper that snuck into a tray of bell peppers[/background]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Seedlings started as far back as October indoors:[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Serranos[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Pasillas[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Kung Pao[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Chili de Arbol[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Thai[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Anaheim[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Open pollinated Habanero from pods from the garden (just to see for fun)[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Reapers[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Vipers[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Butch T's[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Morugas[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Giant Bhut[/background]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]In the Germ Trays:[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Sante Fe Grande[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Takanotsume[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]More Vipers[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]More Reapers[/background]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Coming from a forum friend in the mail anytime soon:[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Primos[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Manzanos[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Scotch Bonnet[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Thai[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Chocolate Habanero[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Chocolate Bhut[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Jonah[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Fatalii[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Yellow Brainstrain[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Yellow Congo[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Douglah[/background]


[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]From another kind soul here:[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Birgit's Locato[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Tepin[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Purple Maui[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Datil[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Tobago Seasoning[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Black Prince[/background]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Ordered Last Night from a couple seed companies:[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Red Bhuts[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Tazmanian Habanero[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Spicy Mustard Habanero[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Charleston[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Yatzy[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Cayenne[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Thai[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Fresno [/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Black Jalapeno[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Purple Jalapeno[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Pepperoncini[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Tepin[/background]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]And the Sweet Varieties we just ordered:[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]King of the North[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Mini Bell[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Red Corno di Toro[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Yellow Corno di Toro[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Sweet Crimson[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Keystone [/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Golden Marconi[/background]
Chocolate Bell
Melrose
Chinese Giant


I am planning on doing some cloning of the best plants later in the year, and also pod isolation to get seeds for next year's grow, and to pay it forward to people here :)

So..... adding them up, so far 44 Hot Varieties and 11 Sweet Varieties

IMAG1458_zpse1f248f9.jpg


OK, Day 4 and the "Goat T" in the unaltered Goat Pen Soil still looks good, if not better than before transplanting :)
 
I am thinking of doing 2 more test hot pepper plants...
But it is raining right now, so hopefully tomorrow I can do this....
.
One in Goat Pen Soil that is mixed with Straw Hay to loosen it up etc....
and One in Goat Pen Soil mixed with Alfalfa Hay for the same reason, except that as it breaks down, it should have more nutrients released.

Since I have both types of hay here, it will be a free/cheap test......and I love free/cheap gardening techniques!
 
Day 5 and the "Goat T" still looks great!
It was freezing outside today, and crazy windy too, so didn't get to do my 2 hay Goat Pen soil amendment potting up experiments yet, but tomorrow is supposed to be warmer with less wind :)
 
Ok, the Goat T still looks great.

I mixed goat pen soil and alfalfa hay, planted a Butch T in it. The draimage is pretty good, and the plant looks good after a few days :)

Also did the same thing but with straw, planted a Moruga, and it looks good too :)
 
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