Happiness is a manure pile ?

sassafraspete · Mar 22, 2005

If you are a gardener that is. I am almost giddy, as my neighbor brought me 2 dumptruck loads of 3 yr old cow manure today. I was racing against the clock, since rain was forecast to come in around noon. I started a new garden spot last year and this old hill clay soil is not very fertile. Last year I poured the lime to it. Today, it got some of mother nature's finest. I guess that makes me organic?

We typically get a week or 2 of good drying weather in late March where sometimes we can work the soil and get some early garden crops in, or get the ground prepared for the late April / May planting. In the last few days, our soil was perfect for working up...and I was able to till up 3 garden spots. I got the cow manure today at about noon....and was very fortunate that the heavy rain held off until about 3 PM. I was able to spread the manure with my loader, then hooked up the tiller and tilled it all in before the rain came. It's a wonderful thing having a tractor and some implements.

I have another couple of loads coming...but looks like they will be put off awhile....since we seem to be in for a rainy spell, and can't get the truck back to my 2nd garden spot. The rains may keep us out until early May. My neighbor contracted with some folks for 200 truckloads of this stuff. These people run over 500 head of cattle...and I guess they do put off a lot of manure ! Anyway, my neighbor is planning to do some organic gardening, farming and will be hauling this stuff for some time.

Now, since it is raining and I can't work with the Branson... I need to get some of those seeds started indoors. I think I just have dirt in the blood.

sassafraspete

DaveNay · Mar 22, 2005

Why can't I find people like you around me?!?! /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

I can't find anyone at all who wants any amount of the several tons of composted horse manure I have sitting in the corner of my property. I'm not even asking for any money! Just come get it, or work with my schedule to deliver it.

Dave

HRS · Mar 22, 2005

sassafras

I know how you feel. I've mixed quite a few loads of manure into my garden over the past few years. However, I have had to use horse. It works well, but you have to make sure it is aged. Over the past two years I got my hands on/in some that was a little too fresh. Stuff burned up everything I planted. That is except for the tomatoes. They didn't seem to mind it at all.

My neighbors, six houses down, love to comment about the "pleasant" smell I bring to the neighborhood each Spring. However, I don't think they mind too much. Often they will come by after everything is growing and marvel at how beautiful it all looks. Sadly, vegetable gardening isn't something many people around here do any more. There are around 80 homes in my community and only one other person has a garden.

It really doesn't take much space and the work is not that great when you consider the benefits. But with that said, I do have to admit that it can become addictive. I started out with a little 8x8 ft bed six years ago, and now I work nearly 3000 sq ft. This is a nice size garden for a hoe and 5hp tiller. Now if I had a nice Branson tractor like you, I'd probably have my entire back yard torn up. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

TMcD_in_MI · Mar 22, 2005

Sounds good to me. We're about a month behind you up in northern Michigan, but I'm hoping to line up a nice pile of that garden gold in late April. I just hope I don't have to shovel it on and off my truck.

Do you have any good ideas for dealing with the weeds that always seem to come with the manure?

Tom

johan3400 · Mar 22, 2005

Dave,
I wish you were closer to my farm in western Illinois. I need as much as I can find and horse manure is great to use. I just scored about 2 or 3 tons of composted sheep manure. That did not even scratch the surface of what i need. I am starting a vegetable farm and wanted to use nothing but composted manure and leaves.

riptides · Mar 23, 2005

Ditto for me.

One day, prepare for the book "Pile management", by Mike Z.

I never knew it could add up so quickly. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

-Mike Z.

Egon · Mar 23, 2005

Pete:

Think you have been missleading some of the newer folk. Your interpetation of " Garden " would be a vetable farm for most. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I have to get down to the beach to pick up seaweed for my flower pot sized garden.

Egon

sassafraspete · Mar 23, 2005

Egon, it doesn't matter if the garden is flower pot sized, or a truck patch..... it is all about the miracle of a tiny seed turning into something wonderful. I can imagine my first ripe tomato of the summer already....just hanging on that vine ready to be plucked. There is almost nothing more anticipated in an Indiana garden than the first ripe tomato.... er ....well, now getting my hands on the first sweet corn of the season....then there's ......

pete

sassafraspete · Mar 23, 2005

Dave and Mike.... have you considered selling it on EBAY? You know, the power of the internet to connect sellers and buyers? Bag it in 5 lb bags, and lable it as organic gold, and ship via UPS. Let's see , how many 5 lb bags in a ton? One man's junk is another man's treasure.

sassafraspete · Mar 23, 2005

Tom, I have always been concerned about the weed seeds that seems to come with cow manure. You would think that after 3 years of "heating" up , there would be no seeds left to germinate. My neighbor and I had this very discussion. His final comment was that at least with all the organic matter in this hard clay soil, would at least make weeds easier to pull.
In all my years, there is no substitution for hand pulling weeds. You can mulch, cultivate, and till....but in the end...there is always some hand work to be done it seems.

hazmat · Mar 23, 2005

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 · Mar 23, 2005

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 · Mar 23, 2005

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 · Mar 23, 2005

( I can't find anyone at all who wants any amount of the several tons of composted horse manure I have )

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 · Mar 23, 2005

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 · Mar 23, 2005

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 · Mar 23, 2005

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 · Mar 24, 2005

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 · Mar 24, 2005

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 · Mar 24, 2005

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

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