bless-my-garden.com » compost

a time to plant

Penny — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:39:00 +0000

When we first started our garden spot is was really bad soil. But it was a good spot. I figured it was easier to improve the soil than to move the sun or the hill so that is what we have been working n for 4 years. It is now really good. But we still do things the way we used to. For the most part we use the Ford 4000 tractor to turn the soil a bit and put in rows. All we have is a box blade so this requires a little ingenuity but it works. Then we use all of that lovely compost to put on top of each row. We do wide rows with a shallow trench down the middle.

garden tea

Penny — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:36:00 +0000

All of this lovely mess will be used initially when we first plant the garden, but we will also keep compost piles going for later. You don’t usually want to put the compost directly on the plants until it is well aged but there is another way to use it that can even work for house plants. Manure tea. Does that sound disgusting or what? Make sure to keep it in an outside dirty bucket so no one gets confused. Ok the recipe. You take a 5 bucket and fill about ¼ full of that lovely aged manure, the results of your compost pile. Then add water, warm water is best, stir well. Let sit for a day or so then use the water to water your plants. It works great!

turning compost and making tea

Penny — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:34:00 +0000

Your compost piles will cook faster if you turn then occasionally. The point being that fire needs oxygen. Now you don’t want a real flame but you do want it to generate heat. That is what turns it from manure to fertilizer. When it is cooked, it is nearly sterile. No germs. Amazing how God creates isn’t it?
Sow how do you turn it? Well if it is layered loosely and it should be you can just lift up some sections with a pitch fork, or you could actually shovel it to a new spot so that the top is now on the bottom.

more on composting

Penny — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:33:00 +0000

There are all kinds of fancy composting machines out there and you could spend hundreds of dollars on “cooking” you manure. Or you could just do it like we do. We might waste a little but hey, around here manure is something we have plenty of. We simply pile it up in heaps. When the barn is cleaned out or the stallions pens are cleaned out it is piled in one corner of the garden. It is best to layer manure then leaves or grass clippings or whatever. If you have rabbit manure or chicken droppings and those are probably both mixed with some sort of bedding also, it is best to layer with the horse manure. Your compost pile should be away from any buildings. It will actually cook, heat up, and could spontaneously combust.

composting

Penny — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:31:00 +0000

When composting your manure you can also add in other plant waste products. Other plant waste products would be potatoes peels, fruit peels, egg shells, coffee grounds, and all those thousands of pounds of leaves your youngins raked up and jumped in and re-raked. If you happen to be getting your horse manure from a barn and it has shavings in it then that is all the better. Horse manure mixed with shavings is the best there is. If you don’t have horses I would be happy to sell you one J just kidding. But usually a local barn will give you manure and used shavings. You load.

manure

Penny — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:13:00 +0000

That is not really a subject most folks like to talk about but for gardens it is essential. Sorry to tell you city folks but it is where fertilizer comes from and part of God’s big plan in the eco-cycle of the grand ole food chain. To have good veggies you have to have manure. Gross I know. But only manure from vegetarian animals. Cow manure is good, rabbit and chicken manure is good but too “hot” meaning high in nitrogen so it must be aged. Horse manure is probably the best there is. It all works well when composted together.