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Post by dirtsunrain on Nov 11, 2009 8:32:33 GMT -5
I sing the praises of poo. I'm in love with my manure pile. This is a century farm and the pile has been there forever. Twice a year the Farmerman from next door comes by to shape it into windrows for me. Mostly it is sheep manure, with contributions from my horse who helps out in the winter. Lovely stuff. Attachments:
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massachusett4hills
gopher
Yes, in the poor man's garden grows Kind thoughts, contentment, peace of mind, And joy
Posts: 34
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Post by massachusett4hills on Nov 11, 2009 10:38:59 GMT -5
 .......Tell me..... do you this add manure to your vegetable garden in spring or fall? Till in then or wait awhile..? How thick....? and any other tips...? In my garden I have only use woodstove ashes and fish scraps in a liquid side dressing once a week .... (3 cups to 5 gallons of water) works great.....
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Post by dirtsunrain on Nov 11, 2009 11:55:04 GMT -5
Since the manure is old and crumbly, I spread it throughout the season. I will never certify as organic, since my little 4 acres is carved off the 400 acre Big Ag/feedlot/industrial farm. I can use as much organic practice as I want, but I still shudder on the days that FarmerMan sprays his roundup.
I layer the fresher stuff from the horse in compost bins. I've been known to completely geek out over a big pile of leaves or a stash of coffee grounds.
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Post by ottawagardener on Nov 11, 2009 18:44:08 GMT -5
"I've been known to completely geek out over a big pile of leaves or a stash of coffee grounds."
I know what you mean. For the last couple of years, I've asked my neighbours for their leaves, even cleaning them up myself...
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Post by flowerpower on Nov 12, 2009 6:50:06 GMT -5
Do you add spoiled hay or shavings to that manure pile?
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peapod
gardener
Zone 4, acidic soil, and sandy loam that I have worked on for 4 years. Fixing the bad stuff.
Posts: 175
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Post by peapod on Nov 13, 2009 20:07:50 GMT -5
Great post. The past two years I have added horse "poo" to my garden. I do it in the fall so that it will over winter and break down. The manure is pretty fresh for the most part. When that has been added I then add the straw from the chicken coop over the summer. Messy little buggers they are, but I love 'em. Then on top of the straw ,I add the leaves that I have raked up from the yard and also the grove.
This method only covers half of the garden.
I grew hariy vetch this year to use a cover too. It's a beautiful green fluffy foliage. There was a doe and a fawn late summer resting in the soft bed of vetch.
The town where I live... the "city" limits, in the fall cleans the boulavards by removing all the leaves that have fallen from the trees. Guess what... they deliver.
I am curious if that type layering has helped anyone else. I had very acidic soil. In August I had a sample tested to see if there were any changes in the level of acid in the soil. And the answer is a resounding yes.
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Post by Alan on Nov 20, 2009 17:04:33 GMT -5
Excellent post!
Don't feel bad about "geeking out" over organic matter, I do it all the time.
Last year I cleaned out an additional neighboring barn (along with the normal 3) that was one of my dad's friends. He told my dad he had never seen someone so happy to play in poo and do so much hard work for just a little "dirt" to go on the gardens.
I've tried every method of applying manure at this point.
in the fall.
in the spring.
composted.
cow, horse, goat, sheep, chicken, turkey, rabbit
fed to the worms
humanure.
Anymore all of it gets composted in some way or the other.
Cow manure doesn't reach thermophylic temperatures, so the worms love it. Humanure gets composted eight months and then goes to the worms. Rabbit and Goat to the worms.
Horse, chicken, kitchen scraps and others go Thermophyllic.
In five years, counting composted chicken litter from the neighboring farms I have spread 30 tons of OM or more on this place and I still need more!
LOL
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Post by grunt on Nov 21, 2009 1:52:24 GMT -5
Alan: Resign yourself to the fact that your never going to stop shoveling it. I'm shoveling on about 3 tons this year, and hope to do the same next year.
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Post by Alan on Dec 10, 2009 18:31:08 GMT -5
I agree Grunt! I'll be forever in the shit shoveling business, I'm a connosier of crap as I tell my friends! LOL
Just started five new worm bins in "The Wyrm" project which entailed shoveling a nice bit of cow shit, but by spring this stuff will be the most beautiful and crumbly humous imaginable.
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Post by maricybele on Feb 16, 2010 20:12:57 GMT -5
Yeah I know what you mean. I was envious of my garden friend's lama poop pile just full of red worms. I have to get the bagged stuff until I get an open truck. I can handle the composted manure for now. I am the crazy woman in the fall filling my 64 gallon yard debris container with as many leaves from our tree lined street as I can get. You can also find me chasing the tree trimming chipper truck like he is the ice cream man and to my husband's dismay there is always a pile of chips near driveway.
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Post by seedywen on Feb 18, 2010 23:06:55 GMT -5
LOL! at the image of chasing after the chipper truck...like the icecream man.
I do that too!
Once even chased after a Garden Service truck that had a trailer, brimming with grass clippings. When I caught up with the truck, found the grass was full of moss as well. After making sure that the lawns the grass/moss came from, used no herb or pesticides, asked the company to dump the load in my farm driveway.
While spreading it as mulch on my perennial and berry beds, I started worrying that maybe, the moss might reactivate and colonize the beds. So decided to keep an eye on the 'experiment'...just in case. No prob...Bob!
The moss had all but disappeared by the end of the growing season.
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Post by synergy on Nov 14, 2010 11:34:24 GMT -5
I have a precious pile much like that I have aged for years and I am now using to ammend other areas. The area I composted it on is the most beautiful black loamy soil now. The worms may be working for me doing this? Like every year I am spreading manured horse bedding straight from the stall under all the trees and every inch of pasture but i will also compost another 2 piles in place for future growing areas. Right now I have a beautiful crop of chickweed growing on it which I pick to eat.  |
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Post by garnetmoth on Nov 14, 2010 15:26:50 GMT -5
gorgeous!
We are adding bunny beans (one breeding doe this year, kept 2 females for expanding in the spring, and the buck) at a good clip, have robbed curbside leaf bags, and my hubby has a co-worker who runs a coffee kiosk and we are getting in on their grounds!
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Post by steev on Nov 21, 2010 20:05:57 GMT -5
One critter's waste is another's resource. Bunny beans, that's rich! LOL. I kept a slow-pile of green waste from my gardening business for years, and now haul off bunny bedding from a rabbit rescue/pet store as well as horse poo from the ranches near my farm. No such thing as too much organic matter on the farm.
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Post by synergy on Jul 7, 2011 1:59:46 GMT -5
My pile is now spread in place and offers about 30 x 30 feet bed 3 feet thick of gorgeous soils growing mostly potatoes so it gets dug over again in fall with all the mulch I added. Should be a lovely bed next year for corn and squash.
I have started a new manure pile I will keep for a number of years in the next area I hope to work into a garden patch across from the last one.
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.......Tell me..... 
