Out with the old and in with the new, the ubiquitous feeling during this, the first week of year 2009? Sure, some unnecessary clothes are being passed along, a couple of tchotchkies. But those nice piles and patties that the horses and cows leave lying about, as so many of their own paddock decorations? These, my fellow gardening friends, are treasures for the taking.
I’ve wheel-barrowed an assortment of cow and horse poop up to our work shed area, then dumped it all into extra trash bins we dug out of the barns’ dark recesses. With my resolution to get our greenhouse into production mode, I’ll need to better the soil. The electrician fixed our grow light (it needed a new ballast, capable of cold weather conditions), and various rodents nibbled whatever lettuce and kale seeds had sprouted during December. So the light is hooked up to a timer, and I’ve put out some mouse traps to start rodent control. The manure, however, will have to wait.
My aunt Ellen recommends an E-shaped bin to handle this manure and other compostable materials (including abundant leaf debris from trees around our house); with additional boards set up against the openings in such a structure, our dogs will hopefully be deterred from routing out “goodies.” Otherwise, she has had great success with long, raised bed-like rows of compost. Space is required, and little animal disturbance, but perhaps you have a place for this idea.
Our weekly chicken coop clean-outs also provide future fabulous fertilizer. It is somewhat mixed with wood shavings (we currently use Douglas Fir or pine – Cedar oils don’t go well with the chickens’ feathers), although we’ve switched to supplementing with shredded office paper. I predict these paper strips will compost better than the shavings, but we shall see.
Chicken, cow and horse poop will do fine mixed together, but these manures need to ’sit’ for a year. Turn them once a week or once a month, but the key to ridding this material of potential bacteria and fungus problems capable of invading your vegetable garden, is to let the pile freeze and heat many times. I’ll get my E-shaped bin up and running and tip my garbage-cans right on in – it’s time to get composting!
In the meantime, I’ll see about acquiring some red wrigglers for some worm castings – this fertilizer can be applied immediately to veggie beds, or in my case, the floor of my greenhouse.
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