Francis Barnswallow wrote:I'm close to being ready to start another garden, but I just don't have the space. I wanted to extend the garden I have now, but doing that would block the view of the lake. So would using those plastic kids pools be a good idea? I have space for them on the side of my house.
Which side of your house would the kiddie pool be on? North, south, east, west?
The heat build-up that other responders are concerned about will be most noticeable on the west side of the house and secondarily on the south. The east would be a good location; north depends on how much sun that side of your house receives.
I have to disagree with Eric on the dark colored pool for this. In Orlando, I think a dark colored pool will absorb too much heat. There will already be heat problems with this setup and a dark color will only compound this.
TWC105,
I'll have to agree with you 100%, but I did say for me
By the time you drill many holes in the bottom, you might as well just cut the bottom out.
I have to disagree with Eric on the dark colored pool for this. In Orlando, I think a dark colored pool will absorb too much heat. There will already be heat problems with this setup and a dark color will only compound this.
TWC105,
I'll have to agree with you 100%, but I did say for me
By the time you drill many holes in the bottom, you might as well just cut the bottom out.
Eric
Sorry, I didn't notice that you were referring to yourself. That makes sense since you are in the Pacific Northwest.
Take a minute to read this paper: [url=https://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010137veg.roots/010137ch26.html]Click Me![/url]
Perhaps a tomato would grow in a kiddie pool, but I think it will be severely handicapped. I think keeping it watered will be important. Plants that have unlimited room to send roots also have a large volume of soil from which to gather water and nutrients.
What is the ground you would set the pool on like? Does anything grow there? Grass, weeds? If so, why not cut 80% of the bottom out of the pool and let the roots go down? You could put down some newspaper then the pool then fill it with whatever you are using as a growing medium. This would smother any weeds or grass, yet let the roots of your crops go down.
DeborahL wrote:Thanks ! Rabbits can't have beans or anything beany but they love collards !
I just wish the window box type carrots would become CARROTS !
Why couldn't rabbits have beans? I've never heard of there being any problems with rabbits having beans of any sort. I don't think rabbits should have excess veggies, they can have pretty much all the dark, leafy greens they want unless they're stubborn and don't eat enough of their grass hay if allowed too much greens.
I generally recommend bunnies get around 50% grass hay (including the stems), 40% dark, leafy greens, and the remaining 10% is other veggies, fruits and pelleted food (even if it's grass hay based pellets). The other veggies can be nearly any veg and variety is best. The biggest problems I see with bunnies is overfeeding pellets, veggies (especially carrots), sometimes fruits, and not enough long-strand, grass hay. They get dental problems, gastrointestinal problems and urinary problems just for a start on the list.
That was alot of reading and very informative! My conclusion oplanting tomatoes in a small swimming pool would call for making alot of sbout 2 inch holes in the bottom! The reason for the two inch holes is to let the roots go deeper and at the same time give the pool strength by not cutting out the whole bottom! Tomatoes seem to grow better without prunning as far as amount of tomatoes from one plant. The earliness f the tomato is another question and I would say only prune a few tomatoes for the early tomatoes! I think planting suckers in july would give alot more crops and a larger late yeild!. What do you all think?
We had five rabbits but only a few left. Anthing that gives a rabbit gas is very bad for them. I have given mine dandelion especially the flowers! Radish leaves seem to be something they like. I use rabbit manure all the time! I hate to get away from the subject here!
Odd Duck, it's The House Rabbit Society's diet guideline that says rabbits should not have beans or cabbage. They can have broccoli and Brussels sprouts though.
My vet says 1/4 cup pellets per day, and no "salad" bigger than my hand. Their favorite fruit is blueberries.
They eat nearly two litter boxes of timothy hay a day. I get huge boxes of long strand hay.
I let dandelions grow and keep them watered for the rabs.
Rabbits cannot have chlorine or flouride, so I buy spring water gallons for them.
I have two rabs, Salt and Clove, both strays I trapped and tamed.
I love my boys ! My cats, Pepper and Spice, love them-Pepper even grooms them !
Sorry, one more off-topic post if you all can stand it.
I don't always agree with the House Rabbit Society's diet recommendations. I have great respect for the work they do and they have one of the best websites available. But, they also commonly recommend whole oats as a treat (or at least they used to) and I've seen too many problems from whole oats irritating or even migrating into the oral tissues. They also recommend rolled oats at far higher amounts than I would. If they think green beans are too starchy and gas inducing, wait till that bunny eats that nice, starchy rolled oat treat! I suspect we should be more specific about the beans we're talking about. I wouldn't necessarily recommend pinto beans, but green beans are fine in moderation. Nearly any vegetable is fine IN MODERATION!
I think many owners get too carried away and feed a bunch of something without considering that you are never really feeding the rabbit, you are feeding it's gut flora - meaning the microbe population in their cecum, in particular. Rabbits get only a fairly small portion of their total nutrients from the stomach, it's much more from volatile fatty acids (VFA's) from fermentation in the cecum that is absorbed directly across the gut wall. Many of their vitamins come from eating the cecotropes or "night stools".
I also have always disagreed with the amount of pellets they recommend. I start limiting pellets at a younger age for most breeds (larger breeds can have higher amounts longer as they take longer to grow to full size). If they specify grass hay based pellets, the volume they recommend might be tolerable, but if most rabbits are fed that amount of alfalfa based pellets, they would have major urinary tract and dental problems within their first 2 years, not to mention obesity. I (and most other exotic experienced vets I know) recommend only 1/8 cup pellets per 5# of rabbit body weight per day. I think I first heard this at a conference from Francis Harcourt Brown's talk and I consider her to be the top rabbit medicine expert in the world. Don't hold me to that, it's been a LONG time that I've been recommending the lower amount of pellets compared to HRS.
I also recommend less veggies and much less fruit per day. Most rabbits must be pushed to eat enough grass hay to keep their gut and teeth healthy over their whole lifetime. If they are fed the amounts of veggies recommend by HRS, they will NOT eat enough hay. I would rather they get more leafy greens and WAY less veggies.
I know you don't have any reason to take my word over HRS, but I used to work at a clinic where myself and an associate saw around a dozen or so rabbits per week at least, along with Guinea pigs, chinchillas, and what ever other small mammal you want to mention. I saw around 70% exotics, at that clinic, admittedly mostly parrots/birds.
Sharon Hollars, DVM - feel free to google me. I haven't checked lately, but I used to be mentioned on a few exotic forums as a recommended vet. I guess I better go check![/I]
Sharon, I didn't know you're a vet !
I feed 1/8 cup pellets, not 1/4. I was thinking of what I scoop for both my boys.
I appreciate your information, I really do. Thank you !
