What did it do?

[yesteryearforge]

A manure spreader is the only thing that Sears and Roebuck sold that they wouldn't stand behind.

[Scott NC]

  Funny thing manure.  It would be a long story but when I was a teen I got a camero stuck in a field after a farm party that had just been spread with it.  It was night time.  And raining.  The clutch had gone out from trying to "rock it back and forth" to get out.  I thought it was a linkage problem, so I got out and slithered under the car and rolled around in it looking for the problem till I actually smelled it.  It was pretty disgusting.  I had to ride in the back of a pickup into town, by myself.

[arkie]

I would have taken you to the nearest DIY car wash and hosed you down!! 

[Scott NC]

  I stood in the driveway and out came the hoses and scrub brushes.  The clothes went to the laundromat.  

[Frosty]

Did they make you wash out the back of the pickup truck?

Frosty The Lucky.

[Scott NC]

  I think maybe they were happy just to get rid of me.  I am now looking for manure for our raised beds and compost piles.  I asked at 2 horse farms and it was already spoken for.  It is a hot commodititty around here.

[Glenn]

Any place that has animals, has manure.  Horses, chickens, pigs, cows, and the list goes on and on.  Do not overlook the local Zoo, the petting zoo, or the dog pound, or kennels.  May want to visit the farmers market, or grocery stores and pick up any spoiled or culled veggies.  Saw mills or firewood processors throw away a lot of material that could be used for compost. 

Use TPAAAT and take the big truck.

[Scott NC]

  Great ideas.  My tunnelvision gets the best of me.  Used to doing things the "old" way sometimes.  I know somebody that has goats and never thought to ask them.  As it happens we are leaving soon for the farmers market AND the grocery store.  I will inquire.  I wonder where I could find a sawmill around here....  I am going to try compost tea soon.  I hear it stinks...   I might get TPAAAT tatood on the back of my hand....  Thanks Glenn.

 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

1 hour ago, Glenn said:

dog pound, or kennels

That’s a new one on me Glenn! I never heard of usin dog manure in the garden?

Scott, 

Some of the best fertilizer I’ve used believe it or not was llama manure, they break everything down much better then a horse and the pellets are easy to load an transport,

llamas have a particular habit of going to the same pile to do their business, so it makes it easy to get a couple hundred pounds in a barrel,

another thought is find someone with rabbit hutch’s, those places normally give away rabbit pellets by the bucket loads and it’s good fertilizer

if you get saw dust from a mill, make sure to compost it first, some fresh green wood chips will do more harm then good to your plants,

[Scott NC]

  Billy, I found an Alpaca farm near here from a quick search.  I wonder if they operate the same.  I have to drive now.  I will look into it.  Theres some llamas too.

  Thanks for the tip on saw dust.  I will keep that in mind.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Another good source for compost is an electric cooperative that still uses a chipper for all the brush & tree limbs they wind up with when cutting easements. Ours will deliver the chippings for free when they are working in the neighborhood or coming through on the way back to the yard.  Two years ago they dropped off a truck load at our place.

[Scott NC]

  Here I was shocked to find out they have a brush service that comes with the taxes you pay.  They pick up brush piles, pine cone piles and logs as long as you put them out to the street.  Which is good for me because the huge lot I bought the house on was a jungle.  But I'm stripping the green leaves off everything for the compost.  No grass to speak of hereabouts.  I wonder what folks think.   Back on the farm I just pushed it all into a pile with the tractor and burned it eventually.  But they do trim along the byways and I'll keep that in mind too. 

[Glenn]

There is a large difference between direct application and composting.  Composting uses many different kinds of materials and breaks them down in a year or two to a useful product.  Compost is not a single product but multiple products working together to promote decay and provide a good, well rounded, mix.

Like chemical fertilizer, a little goes a long way.  Mix the compost into the soil in the fall and let it winter over to build the soil.  You can top dress small areas but need to be watchful of getting too much of a good thing in one spot.  It needs to be able to leach nutrients into the soil.  

There is a whole science as to composting and how it should be applied.

 

 

[Scott NC]

"You can top dress small areas but need to be watchful of getting too much of a good thing in one spot.  It needs to be able to leach nutrients into the soil."

   I'm told compost tea is potent.  Back home the soil was so fertile you didn't need to bother with compost, although we had a huge pile from canning and other things.  It was so big it ate up corn stalks. I would drag it over the garden with a blade on the tractor and plowed under all the mulch for 20 years though.  The results were starteling.   I'm on a learning curve now.  New bugs, diseases, you name it.  We had 3 acres of garden.  I bet if I apply myself I could do it on this half acre.  I saw an earth worm the other day....  Somethings working....

[Glenn]

You have to take the posts made knowing or not knowing the situation of the poster.  How much compost do you want or better yet how much do you need?  How much room do you have to store and let the material compost for a year or two?   A 5 gallon bucket of manure is different from a pick-up truck load, and different still from a dump truck load full of material.  Neighbors may complain if the compost starts to heat up and cook during the summer.  They may not appreciate your efforts if the wind blows in their direction.  But they will be first in line when it comes time to borrow a little of that good rich dirt that is produced.

Mixing different materials, then adding sand, weed ashes, egg shells, hair, shredded newspaper, coffee grounds, earth worms, water, etc.  Shreading all materials to a small size is best as it gives more surface area to work with.

Are you talking about a 55 gallon drum composter, a 4x4 foot fenced area, an area the size of a 2 car garage, or a larger space?  Each has its own requirements.

 

 

[Scott NC]

  I am just starting out with this raised bed garden adventure.    In my previous post I was talking about back home on the farm. 

I only have four 4x8 raised beds and have a half acre to expand.  The back yard is already mulched completely with straw and leaves.  

  I can store as much as I want.  I have never had a pile or tumbler stink if done right.  But never used manure.  That will be new and I intend to start small.

  We put egg shells in, if dried out.  Coffee grounds acidify.

  I have a tumbler, wood boxes and want to start a pile. A big one. Not the size of a 2 car garage.   8x8 maybe.

[Glenn]

Rake up all that pine straw into one pile.  Lay down a half a foot of the stuff, followed by a layer of other things, more pine straw, more other things, water and mix it.  Any extra stuff gets thrown onto the pile.  Mixing just keeps the water worked in and add s air so it can work.  Think of it as a long term project as in a year or more.   

You may want to give it a good mix and scatter winter or cereal rye on the top. Winter or cereal rye is an excellent winter cover crop because it rapidly produces a ground cover that holds soil in place against the forces of wind and water. Rye’s deep roots help prevent compaction in annually tilled fields, and because its roots are quite extensive, rye also has a positive effect on soil tilth.  Come spring till it into the pile and start adding more stuff.

Rye can provide a very clean mulch so long as it is cut before any viable seed is set. 

[Scott NC]

  What is wrong with rye straw for mulch if it did set viable seed?  I usually buy wheat straw but they were out and the guy I bought it from mentioned something about seeds but I can't remember what he said.  I spread it everywhere.  I hope I didn't make a mistake.  I've never used rye straw before.

[Frosty]

You probably don't want to accidentally plant Rye. It develops roots that can be a real bear to get rid of once it's established and it doesn't take much to get Rye established. 

Unless I've misread the articles being so easy to grow and hard to kill is the main reason Rye was one of the earliest (as far as we know now) cereal grains possibly following rice, I'm not sure where barley is on the earliest cereal grains list but it's one of the first as well. Rye is good at choking out other grasses and weeds. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Scott NC]

Oops.  I guess I'll keep an eye on it.  I went out and looked but didn't see many grain heads on it.  I guess they use it for horse bedding around here.   I left bindweed behind, I don't want to fight rye roots.  I do like rye bread with ham and cheese though.  Thanks.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

I wonder if rye is dog proof? 
my Aussie has packed down permanent dirt trails all over my yard lol

[Scott NC]

  No fear of our dog packing trails in my yard, no grass....   On the bright side, I don't have to mow.