Feed your chickens our Omega-3 Chicken Forage Blend to ramp up the Omega-3 in their eggs (shown here growing in seed flats).

All chickens deserve dry, safe places to live. Offer them good grub too—and you’ll get yummy eggs full of Omega-3 fatty acids!

Give your backyard chickens the best room and board. Here at Peaceful Valley we have all the supplies you need to raise healthy chickens.

BACKYARD CHICKEN VIDEOS

We have 3 videos for you on backyard chickens! Tricia raises chickens and covers the basics on what they need.

Guest stars in our videos this week are Jessi Bloom and Jayme Jenkins.

Jessi Bloom, author of Free-Range Chicken Gardens, tells the story of chickens as part of permaculture.

Jayme Jenkins blogs at Nest in Style—and built her own chicken coop. Click for Jayme’s tips on the coops that will be best for your back (and for the hens).

OMEGA-3 CHICKEN FORAGE BLEND

We’re famous (in the poultry population) for our Omega-3 Chicken Forage Blend. Chickens love to cruise around and find their own tasty bites in the garden. This blend gives them choices, and sneaks in a lot of Omega-3 producing greenery for them.

Omega-3 fatty acids are an important component of a healthy diet. One way to get this substance in our food is to eat eggs from chickens raised on a diet that promotes the formation of Omega-3s right in the egg. University studies show significantly higher Omega-3s in eggs from hens who can forage in pasture instead of just eating an industrial diet. Our mix has the alfalfa, clover, and flax that increase Omega-3s in eggs.

Plant annually after danger of frost has passed.

Plant at 50 pounds per acre or 2-3 pounds per 1,000 sq. ft. Keep moist until germination and then water regularly, depending on your soil type. When the mix is 2-5” tall turn the chickens loose on the planted area until they have eaten the grasses about half way.

Or plant some in a 17” square flat for the chickens and let them chow it all down. Add soil, sow thickly, follow the growing instructions above, then place the flat in the chicken run.

Caution: Flax can form prussic acid when exposed to frost so do not graze horses on this mix.

CHICKEN COOPS

Who uses that coop anyway? The hens, of course, but you do too—and you want the coop height to be easy on your back when you’re gathering eggs, checking on your flock, and cleaning the coop.

We found small and large coops that work well for the chickens and for you!

These meet all the requirements for being secure, high off the ground, well-ventilated, designed with chicken roosting and laying needs in mind—and they’re cute!

CHICKEN RAISING SUPPLIES

We have galvanized chicken waterers and feeders for your feathered friends. Lots of good food too, like Organic Layer Chicken Pellets, and the specially digestible oyster shell that keeps calcium levels high (and egg binding away).

A chicken’s idea of a spa treatment is a dust bath. Mix food grade diatomaceous earth with your own dirt and make some hens happy.

BOOKS ABOUT BACKYARD CHICKENS

Chickens are a hot topic and the chicken books are flying off the presses. We read all the new books and have our picks for the top of the pecking order.

You can’t go wrong with Jessi’s Free Range Chicken Gardens, or the comprehensive City Chicks and Living with Chickens.

In a nesting mode? Check out the great coop designs and super-easy-to-follow building directions in the brand-new Art of the Chicken Coop.

Here’s to healthy hens and healthy chicken keepers!

Reduce pressure in your irrigation system with pressure regulators of various kinds.

Problem #1:  How to keep even pressure when water has to run downhill

Good news! Gravity is not all powerful when it comes to water flow. We can intervene with pressure regulators.

If you ran a line of poly tubing straight downhill you’d run into trouble.

If you left it up to gravity, your drip irrigation system would be trickling out water at the top of the hill, and shooting out high pressure water at the bottom of the hill.

First trick is to run the line at an angle down the slope, to decrease the gravitational pull.

Second trick is to use pressure regulators as needed. To keep the water pressure even, simply add pressure regulators at intervals along the line. Lay down a short run of poly tubing then add a pressure regulator. Repeat as you go down the hill.

Problem #2:  Keep water flowing evenly along a long line

You might have a pressure tank that gives you low water pressure. If you have a long line of plants to water, and your pressure is low, you could have very low water pressure by the end of the line, with inadequate water coming out of the emitters.

Solve this problem by running poly tubing down one side of the plants, across the bottom, and up the other side, connecting the poly tubing again to form a rectangle around the line of plants.

For basic information about measuring water flow and water pressure, watch our video and read the accompanying blog article.

Tricia uses inexpensive tools to check her water pressure and water flow.

Water pressure and water flow are key to answering that basic gardening question, How do you get water to the plants?

We all know how to water plants.You can:

*  hand water (time consuming)
*  move an oscillating sprinkler around (wastes water as it sprays through the air, and haven’t we all forgotten to turn off the sprinkler?)

Best of all though, for:
1)  steady supply of water to your plants
2)  water conservation
3)  convenience
is drip irrigation on a timer.

To plan a drip irrigation set-up you need to know your water pressure and water flow. In our new video Tricia shows how to get these numbers, with a few inexpensive tools. It’s not hard. Just follow the steps.

HOW TO MEASURE WATER PRESSURE

The first thing to figure out is how much water pressure you have. Then you can move on to looking at water flow.

It’s easy to check your water pressure. Turn off all appliances or hoses that would drain from that water source. Screw on a water pressure gauge, and turn on your faucet. The gauge will show your pressure in Pounds per Square Inch, commonly abbreviated as psi.

HOW TO MEASURE WATER FLOW

Have you seen those abbreviations GPM and GPH when you’re reading about irrigation?

In our video Tricia explains that those mean Gallons Per Minute and Gallons Per Hour.

WHAT ARE YOUR GALLONS PER MINUTE?

There’s an easy way to establish the GPM from your water source—all you need is a bucket and a stop watch. Watch the video to see how Tricia does it.

Five gallon buckets often hold more than 5 gallons, so Tricia pours 5 one-gallon jugs of water into the bucket.

Tricia marks the 5 gallon line in the bucket.

She puts the empty bucket under the spigot, gets out her stop watch, turns the spigot on full blast, and times how long it takes the water to reach the 5 gallon mark.

In a nifty piece of animation, our video shows the formula to apply.

5 (for the number of gallons) divided by the number of seconds to reach the 5 gallon mark = gallons per second. Multiply that number by 60 = gallons per minute.

Multiply again by 60 for gallons per hour.

To take full advantage of the capacity of 1/2” poly tubing you will need 200 gallons per hour.

MAKING CHOICES ABOUT YOUR IRRIGATION SYSTEM

Look at your water pressure (psi) and water flow (GPH) and what you need to water (see our Drip Irrigation video for your equipment choices).

Now you can put together the mix of:

*  pressure regulators
*  poly tubing with emitters
*  drip tape
*  soaker hoses
*  emitterlines

that are right for your water supply and landscape.

DO YOU NEED A PRESSURE REGULATOR?

If your pressure is over 30 psi, you need a pressure regulator to ensure your drip emitters don’t pop out, or emit more water than you want.

Drip emitters are rated in gallons per hour at a specific pressure. For example, mini-sprinklers can have a flow ranging from 4.4 to 30.5 gallons per hour depending on the pressure and the sprinkler model.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT PRESSURE REGULATOR

Poly tubing requires 25 to 30 psi to run well.

Drip tape, soaker hoses, and emitterlines need much lower pressure at 10 psi.

Choose your pressure regulator to produce the pressure you need for the type of system you are running—either drip tape and soaker hoses, or poly tubing with emitters.

For drip tape and soaker hoses, choose a pressure regulator that reduces pressure to 10 psi.

For poly tubing with emitters, choose a pressure regulator that reduces pressure to 22-25 psi.

Some of our pressure regulators are labeled for hi flow. Use them if your flow is over 8 GPM.

For more information about drip irrigation, we recommend the clear and useful book, Drip Irrigation for Every Landscape.

Measure your water pressure and water flow, and you’re on your way to planning your drip irrigation!

Run through our simple steps to ensure that your drip system is ready for warm weather. Tricia is draining her filter.

Drip irrigation is good for you and good for your plants.

You can leave town for a few days, instead of staying home to hand water.

Your plants can get a steady supply of water, in regular amounts, that will help them thrive. Drought followed by flood (when we neglect, then over-compensate) is hard on plants.

Do you need to add drip irrigation to all or part of your garden? We have an intro video about that, where Tricia shows how to set up a system. For the basics about the different kinds of drip irrigation, read our article that walks you through the options. You’ll quickly see which are best for different parts of your garden.

If you have drip irrigation you should check it in the spring, to make sure it’s ready to run through the hot summer.

In our latest video, Tricia does a tune-up of her drip irrigation system.

Here’s an easy annual drip checklist to follow:

*  Flush your system.
*  Flush your filter and clean out your screen (unless you have a self-cleaning filter).
*  Turn on your system one part at a time and check to make sure the water is flowing.
*  Are there are any clogged or damaged emitters, kinked tubing, or missing fittings?
*  Soak any clogged emitters in vinegar.
*  If emitters are either popping off or not spraying at all, use a pressure gauge to check your pressure regulator.
*  Replace any damaged emitters.
*  Clean your drip system by running Therm-X through your lines.

Now take a look at the plants in your garden. Do they need more water or less water than last year?

*  Add emitters to the dripline of trees that have grown in the last year, but do not remove the existing emitters.
*  Reduce or remove emitters for drought-tolerant plants that have become established.
    Perennials of any kind usually take 3 years to settle in.
*  The University of Arizona Extension has helpful advice on both these issues.

You’re all set! Enjoy another summer, and save water, with drip irrigation.

For more information about drip irrigation, turn to the guy who makes it all clear, Robert Kourik. His book, Drip Irrigation for Every Landscape, will become one of your go-to garden assistants.

FREE artichoke seedling with purchase, while supplies last!

Celebrate the earth this week at our Grass Valley store and nursery!

Spring and summer hours are Monday through Saturday 8-6, Sunday 10-4.

From Wednesday, April 18 through Sunday, April 22 (Earth Day!) we’ll have a bushel basket of specials for you.

FREE SEEDS

1 free Peaceful Valley Vegetable or Herb seed packet ($2.49 value) for every $10 spent, with a limit of 50 packs ($500 spent).

FREE ARTICHOKE SEEDLING

1 free ‘Green Globe’ artichoke seedling with a live plant nursery purchase (while supplies last).  Limit 1 per person per day.

FREE COMPOST TEA ON THURSDAY & SATURDAY

2 gallons of compost tea with a purchase. Bring your own container or buy one for $1. Tea is available on Thursday and Saturday only this week.

FUN DEMOS & FREE SAMPLES ON SUNDAY

Some of our suppliers

*  Eco-Nutrients (organic fertilizers)
*  Malibu Compost (biodynamic compost)
*  Flame Engineering (flame weeders)
*  Lindblad Studios (farm art demo, farm animal prints and cards)

will be here with demonstrations and FREE samples.

Notice how the word FREE keeps cropping up? Come on over and enjoy the Freedom of the Earth.

Long spring and summer hours for the store and nursery are Monday through Saturday 8-6, Sunday 10-4.

While you’re here, sign up for our next workshops:

Backyard Chickens (and Ducks too)
Saturday, April 28, 9:30 a.m. to noon
$15 with Cooper Funk, Co-Founder of Urban Eggs, Farmer at Dinner Bell Farm, http://www.dinnerbellfarm.com

Herb Cultivation
Saturday, May 5, 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
$15 with renowned herb specialist & author Kathi Keville, Oak Valley Herb Farm http://www.ahaherb.com

Workshop fee includes a 10% coupon off almost anything in the store, for 1 week.

Tricia is double digging a new garden bed.

Double digging revitalizes garden soil and gives it better tilth.

It’s one of the basic practices of “French intensive” or “biointensive” organic gardening.

French intensive gardening is named after 19th century market gardens in France that produced large amounts of vegetables in small spaces by enriching the soil, planting crops close together (to keep moisture in and weeds down), and topping off with season extending glass bell jars (cloches) placed over crops in cool weather.

J.I. Rodale of Pennsylvania popularized this method of gardening in the U.S. and he started the newsletter (now magazine) Organic Gardening in the 1940s.

Another giant figure in modern American biointensive gardening is John Jeavons, who wrote the garden classic, How to Grow More Vegetables (the updated 8th edition is just out).

When faced with a new garden area of compacted soil, the first biointensive technique for loosening and enriching the soil is double digging.

DOUBLE DIGGING TECHNIQUE

Tricia demonstrates in our video on double digging and Ohio State University Extension has a simple outline too:

*  Mark and dig one trench, double the depth of your shovel or spade.

*  Set aside the top soil in a wheelbarrow.

*  Spread compost or soil amendment. This is an ideal time to add phosphorus deep in your soil where plant roots will be able to access it. Use soft rock phosphate or a high phosphorous fertilizer.

*  Loosen the remaining soil in the trench with a digging fork, broadfork or deep spader.

*  Repeat the process in a parallel trench, and place the topsoil from the second trench in the first trench.

*  At the end of the process the reserved top soil from the first trench is placed on the last trench.

WHEN TO DOUBLE DIG

Double dig a new garden bed any time of the year. Be sure the soil is NOT WET; digging in those conditions will damage the soil.

In the photo, Tricia shows that the soil is moist but not wet. Preparing a new bed in the spring creates a home for flourishing summer vegetables, but you can also dig in late summer for cool season vegetables, or to cover crop a bed and get ready for the following summer vegetables.

GOOD NEWS ABOUT DOUBLE DIGGING

You only have to do it once!

Here are ways to keep your soil loose in the following years:

*  Don’t walk on your beds.

*  Add several inches of compost before winter, so the rain will water it in. This renews the microbial activity in your soil.

*  The earthworms will work underground to keep your soil friable.

In fact, keeping earthworms happy is an important reason for double digging. The process is partly for their benefit, to prevent the disruption of their lives. Rototilling, which is a modern alternative to double digging, can destroy earthworm tunnels (and the worms), and it can easily lead to hardpan soil that does not drain properly.

Another reason behind double digging, and the preservation of the soil layers, is that different microbes live in different layers of the soil.

For more information about soil, see the fascinating book Teaming with Microbes.

Burn off those winter pounds with some double digging and pat yourself on the back for years to come!