'Scoop the Poop' day

[kyosa]

We had so much CONTINUAL rain this Spring that besides a few tomato and pepper plants I let the garden languish and worked a bit on improving the soil. After the rains moderated I tilled and sowed buckwheat. Let it grow to flowering stage and tilled it. Repeated the process. A month or so ago I put on two truckloads of old rotted sawdust and tilled that in. Today I put on two truckloads of nicely-rotted horse manure. There's a big stable/riding school just down the road a bit and they'll do the loading, just pay them a bit for fuel. Right now my soil is the prettiest brown/black imaginable. I think I'll see if I can get one more stand of buckwheat to grow a bit, then maybe another light dose of manure before winter. Hopefully I'll grow something next year.

[Kathy]

Darryl, it sounds like you've got a real 'Scoop on the Poop'.

With that much loving attention, next year you should have a real bumper crop. My father always used buckwheat for green manure and cow manure, I remember the garden areas were gorgeous.

[momo]

We need to do that too. My gardener(DH) hasn't found the time yet. We have a red clay soil on most of our property, and it would produce better with some additions.

We do have horse poop but I've always heard that cow poop is better. Have you had good luck with the horse kind?

I ran into a few packs of leftover seeds today. I went ahead and got them just in case for next year.

[kyosa]

<< We do have horse poop but I've always heard that cow poop is better. Have you had good luck with the horse kind? >>

They're both good. Horse is supposed to have a bit higher nitrogen content, but there's not a whole lot of difference. The biggest drawback to horse is that unless it's composted or well-rotted it has more weed seeds in it. Cows are ruminants and have that four-stomach thing going so they don't let as many intact weed seeds pass through their system. If you don't mind keeping up with weeding there's not a whole lot of difference between the two manures. the stuff I got had been piled for a while and was steaming when it was picked up with the loader so hopefully the weed issue will be small. It's mostly a matter of what you have access to in these effete times. Just use what ya can get and all will be well. I really need to get a good-sized composting operation going, but that's a whole 'nother subject.

Edit to add:
If the manure you're using is relatively fresh, horse is drier than cow and is a bit easier to handle.

[momo]

I guess that means that "Fabio" will be contributing to our gardening efforts!

[Deleted]

I started a compost pile.... but need to do some work to make it decent sized yet. It's about time for the manure to hit the garden here to.... (that means winter is comming)

Kyosa, we DO expect pics of the garden next year!!

Kaza