Two weeks ago we hooked up our trailer and visited a local horse farm to get a huge load of manure. Every year they let us come and take a load from the two year old, composted manure pile. I feel so fortunate to be able to do so and am thankful for the farmers generosity.
My husband and I spent a day last week cleaning the gardens and covering them with a 3 in deep layer of the nutrient, rich compost. Now, many of you would say why not wait until spring just before planting. Well, I have done that many times in the past. This year I wanted to put down all my shredded leaves, garden scrapes, ground up eggshells. shredded egg cartons and the manure in late fall instead. I would like to compare how my garden grows by letting everything decompose during the winter months to enrich my soil.
I have found in the past that sometimes my young seedlings have struggled to adjust to the manure being put on the month before planting. I think that this will be a good test for me to see if they do better at taking off in the spring. Does anyone else put the composted materials on in late fall? I would be interested in your gardening experiences with manure.
This area where I have my raised beds. One has herbs, one strawberries and green onions, and I grow kale with them too. The larger one is for some of my root veggies, chards, and greens. Along side the house I have just planted my garlic cloves for next summers harvest. I actually put in 60 cloves this year.
As you can see, I still have one more Daikon radish to harvest and also fresh parsley that is still going strong. I just threw the compost around them, doesn't it look nice and rich? I am feeling really good about doing it in the fall instead of spring. Any thoughts?
Until next time, this is Sunscape...
Sun. Scape. Ing your day
