Happiness is a manure pile ?

[hazmat]

A few years back we got my Mom a truckload of manure and a new shovel for Mother's day /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. It was what she wanted, really... We were kind enough to unload it for her...

Nothing beats food grown in your own backyard. Someday I'll have my own little patch - just can't find time right now.

 

[sassafraspete]

Jim...you sound like my neighbor. He is getting into organic farming in a big way....and will feed his organic corn to his animals. I think it is going to be fun watching his progress, and I hope to learn something from it as well. I may have to put up with the smell of a little manure.... in return , I hope to buy some of his pork and beef ....that haven't been shot up with who knows what. Enjoy your venture, and good luck.

 

[sassafraspete]

Hazmat... your story reminded me of the time I got my wife some "tools"....and passed it off as a wedding aniversary gift. She has never let me forget that one. She tells everyone I got her a "garden rake" for her aniversary. Being an avid gardener.... I thought that was quite a romantic gift. Maybe I have manure on the brain....

 

[EastTexFrank]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( <font color="blue"> I can't find anyone at all who wants any amount of the several tons of composted horse manure I have </font> )</font>

Dave, I can't believe that. IMHO, composted horse manure is the very best thing for any garden, vegetables and roses love it. Many years ago, when I had access to a free unlimited supply, I used to haul it off by the ton in plastic trash sacks in the back of a Volkswaggon Scirroco hatchback. Ah, the good old days. Now, I'm surrounded by horses and can't get my hands on any of it. I can't find anyone who stables their horses around here. They're just left in the pasture all year. I'm still working at it though. I'll find somebody, somewhere who, like you, just wants to get rid of the stuff and then I'll be there with truck and trailer. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[sassafraspete]

Frank.... I have had 3 different VW scirroco vehicles in my past... but never hauled any manure in them. Gardeners will go to great lengths.....

 

[HRS]

Ok, since we are talking about weeds, I will tell what I did last year. I usually plant around 35 tomato plants towards the back of my garden, under the shade of some pine trees. It takes a little longer for their fruit to ripen in the shade, but it is well worth the wait. The sun down here in Georgia can get quite hot during July and it will bleach the western side on any tomato of mine that has full exposer. Anyway, crabgrass also grows very well in this enriched and slightly shaded soil.

So sometime last July I was down on my hands and knees ripping it out of the ground. I would toss it in the center of the rows and then come along later and fork it all up. Well, on this particular day, an afternoon storm chased me out of the garden after I'd pulled a good bit of this ornery weed grass. As luck would have it, I started in on another project at about this time and did not bother to resume the weed pulling for at least four or five days. When I went back out, I was astonished. All the Crabgrass I had previously pulled had nit back down and had to be pulled again. Needless to say, I didn't think that this was very fair. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

So, if you pull them, you had better toss them. Forget the rain.

 

[PineRidge]

Sassafraspete welcome to the club. We always add composed horse manure to our garden since a neighbor down the road has lots and lots of well composted manure. When I was talking with him this past fall he practically begged me to take more since a lot of his regulars haden't come for their regular supply.

So I hooked up with a guy that had a dump and paid him to shuffle 20 dump-truck loads of the good stuff to my lot. It was spread and tilled in last fall. My wife, Rose is looking forward to more than a few weeds sure but the tomatoes, yes the fresh mater's are worth all the extra trouble.

 

[sassafraspete]

Mike (pineridge).... sounds like you did it the right way....haul it in the fall and till it in. 20 loads.....wow. You have me thinking bigger now. Can you grow a good tomato in Ohio? (only kidding).

It may be possible to have "too fertile" soil right? I am thinking about something like sweet potatoes which I believe grow long and skinny in deep, fertile, soil....and make a better (fat) potato in poorer soil.

I am not a connoisseur of manure.... but those of you who are.... is horse better than cow?

 

[sassafraspete]

HRS.... I have done the same thing....there are some weeds you have to carry out of the garden. We have one weed here... (I can't remember the name)...but is almost like a succulent. It grows low to the ground and holds a lot of water. You can cut it off and it will lay there for a long time holding water before it dries up. Many times, it will re-root from a stem and start growing again. I learned from some of my daughter's cookbooks that this weed is actually used by some fancy restraunts to make a salad. I haven't been brave enough to try it yet. Maybe someone out there knows the name of this weed.... it grows low to the ground , spreading out, with very "juicy" stems and fat juicy leaves. The name escapes me at the moment..... (getting old).

 

[DaveNay]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I am not a connoisseur of manure.... but those of you who are.... is horse better than cow? )</font>

I am not sure about the chemical makeup of the two different brands, but I do know that cattle have a much more eficient digestive system than horses, so horse manure has more "texture" to it. You can even usually still see what they have been eating...our horses are fed a grass and alfafa hay, with no grain, so the manure has a very high fiber content before it gets composted.

Dave