I started my spring ritual, adding aged horse manure to the gardens today. I wanted to see how much I could get done before it snowed. Yes, snow!
I dream of owning a tractor someday, but for now it's five gallon buckets, a shovel, a pitchfork, the golf cart and ME, back and forth from the pile to the gardens.
This particular pile has been composting more than a year. It is well over four feet high, the minimum height a pile should be, to generate enough heat to decompose properly.
The pile is too big to turn by hand so it just decomposes on the spot over time. It has clumps here and there, and that's why it's called aged manure vs. composted manure. While it still composts, it isn't turned over and over again like composted manure which dissolves into small particles.
Some people don't like the looks of the clumps. But they are easily broken up with a shovel or rake, and if you bring them to your nose it smells just like earth...glorious earth.
And boy, does it makes the garden grow. It IS garden gold!
I filled up the buckets and dumped the aged manure in the front gardens, filled with flowers, herbs, strawberries and shrubs.
Did I mention I had some helpers?
They are very good at spreading it all around.
We also have the manure from the chickens, ducks and rabbits that we keep in smaller compost piles and add to all our gardens. It's the best fertilizer.
Do you have garden gold?
happy day!
