Organic Manure

We had a truckload of organic manure delivered the other day. Several years ago we started buying organic beef from farmer Mike whose farm is a few towns over in Lyman, Maine. Farmer Mike pastures his cows in summer and feeds them organically in winter. He has recently acquired a dump truck so that he can deliver loads of valuable cattle by products. A large pile of this precious stuff now resides at the top of our driveway.

Earlier we had gotten manure from a non-organic farmer, and we've noticed a big difference between this manure and that from farmer Mike. The veggies have become more productive, the lilacs have more flowers, and all of the perennials look better than they ever have before. We’ve written about the challenges of converting forest land into garden-able soil, and it turns out that using organic manure might be just the trick.

Because we always want to know more about things, I googled “organic manure.” Some good info was found at the Organic Trade Association site. We were already aware that in its current form, fresh manure is too strong to use on plants, and could kill them. The Trade Association let us know why: raw manure contains soluble nitrogen in the form of ammonium. This is the wrong form of nitrogen, and the manure also contains the wrong form of bacteria for gardening use. 

The ever-helpful Murphy checks out the manure

Organic standards for raw manure, according to the Organic Trade Association, call for allowing it to age for 120 days before applying it to soil where plants for human consumption are in direct contact with the soil. For veggies not in direct contact with soil, the waiting period is 90 days. Composting the manure is even better. 

We’ve posted about compost earlier, click here for the post. Composting occurs through a mixture of brown and green materials. Raw manure is green, and high in nitrogen. To create a maximum balance, it needs to be mixed with brown materials like leaves or straw. These contain carbon. The carbon and nitrogen combination make a potent elixir for garden productivity. E. coli, salmonella and other pathogens can exist in manure. Composting creates temperatures that kill most pathogens. 

Our project right now is to make compost piles out of the manure. We’re making layered stacks alternating leaves that were raked up last fall with wheelbarrow loads of the raw manure. It’s a big pile of manure, so when we get bored of making compost piles, we’ll leave the rest to age. The compost will be used later in summer to side dress plants, and the aging manure will be spread on the garden beds after the plants have been harvested in the fall. -G.H.

It's Clean-up Time

The closet is full of squash. The freezer is crammed with bags of beans. Potatoes, and jars of pickles and relishes fill the shelves of the root cellar. There’s frozen basil, braided garlic, and a crock of sauerkraut. Hot peppers are strung up and hung to dry in the kitchen window. Although beets wait in the garden for the last minute before a hard frost in case they might grow just a tiny bit more, as do the brussels sprouts, for the most of the garden it’s time to clean up.

The last of the garden was gleaned as we pulled up the plants.

We do this every year. This year we’re being ultra careful about it because there was more cutworm damage than we’d care to see (we’ll be doing a post about that). We go around and yank up all the spent plants and throw them onto piles for compost. Then rake up fallen tree leaves and, along with manure, add them in layers to the piles. If autumn gives us plenty of warm days the piles will be turned once or twice. If not, they will be compost by spring anyway.

Fallen leaves are aplenty in this forest environment giving us lots of material for a number of things. Among them are garden pathways. A thick cover of leaves on them serves several functions. Most importantly, the paths stay weed-free all summer. If weeds were allowed to grow there, one of us would have to spend a lot of time weeding, and the same one of us is not into that.

Another benefit is that worms get very busy eating the bottom of the leaf layer. Worm castings are considered a beneficial manure, thus providing nutrients to plants growing alongside the paths. We’ll probably do a post about this sometime, but meanwhile, click here for a source telling about the wonders of worm castings. 

Vining plants like cucumbers and squash spill off the beds and set their fruits on the paths. Lying on mulch, they are clean when we go to pick them.

Yet another benefit of leaves in the paths has to do with slugs. Unwanted populations of the shell-less snails have been growing in the past few years due to excess moisture from our (sadly) changed climate. Using straw or hay as mulch seems to encourage them, but the leaf mulch doesn’t appear to have the same effect. 

Murphy, the ever-wary garden dog inspects the perfectly layered pile of compost.

After filling in the garden paths, more fallen leaves are raked into a piles and reserved for mulching next summer’s potatoes. They are perfect for that, although we do have to check on the mulch as the potatoes grow. Worms eat away at it and it can all but disappear. Adding more saves the potatoes and keeps the worms fed.

Then, the final thing to do with the garden beds is to go over them with a four prong cultivator, fluffing the top layer of soil. We hope this will discourage the afore-mentioned cutworms. The soil of the beds is then left bare for the winter. Any undesirables might be either bleached away by the sun, or frozen out over the winter. This is what we’ve done for a good number of years, and it seems to work for us.

And, while we're cleaning up, there is also some fall planting to do. It’s garlic planting time. Garlic needs cold temperatures to induce bulbing, making October an ideal time to plant. We gather another pile of raked leaves and reserve them to cover the garlic after the soil freezes. Click here for our post about garlic.

Some of our prior blog posts are about our cold frames, into which are now planted winter salad greens and spinach. Click on “Cold Frames” in the righthand column for our posts about those. Cleaning and planting seem to be on the October agenda! -jmm and G.H

Compost

Making compost is a fairly simple matter and is the first step in the gardening process. If you are starting a new garden, establishing a compost pile is the very first thing to do. It is good to start composting a year before you start the garden. Here, we are starting some new garden areas to start using next year, and are piling up all sorts of vegetation for these areas. There are piles of leaves, weeds, and ferns.

Compost is black gold for the garden, and is invaluable in getting new soil productive, as well as for side dressing established plants. It conditions soil, adds nutrients, and can be used as mulch.

There are myths about making compost. One is that compost requires a bin or other enclosed area. Another is that weeds shouldn't be added to a compost pile. Neither is true.

A compost pile can be started as a simple pile on the ground; a bin or enclosure is not needed. We tried a hay bale enclosure one year, but found that the hay became a breeding area for slugs. The bales were full of them and it was nasty, disgusting, and gross to say the least. We have also used one of those round black plastic bins that are commonly sold as a fundraising effort through local organizations. We are happy to have contributed to the cause, and the bin worked out better than hay. But we abandoned it after discovering several families of well-fed mice comfortably ensconced in the finished compost at the bottom.

As for weeds, they are essential composting material and should not be trashed outside of the garden. Weeds, as they grow, extract nutrients from the soil, and those should be returned. I've added large quantities of weeds, especially dandelions, to compost piles over the years, and have never had dandelion or other weed infestation as a result. Our compost piles do not grow weeds. Oddly, tomato seeds seem to survive the heat of the pile, and we often have several tomato plants sprouting. This year a potato is growing.

There are other aspects of composting that are worth paying attention to. One is that when assembling a compost heap it should be made at least three feet across and three feet deep. A new heap can be started smaller and added to, but may not be fully effective. Really big piles can be too much work to turn. Three foot piles seem to work well for both the breakdown process, and for turning.

Another fact is that a combination of browned stuff with green stuff is what gets the pile to cook. I often save a pile of last fall’s leaves to layer with freshly picked weeds. The green and brown combination creates heat and the pile, if it is evenly moist but not wet, will actually ccok on the inside. This burns out seeds, and facilitates the break down process. Water the pile if it seems to be drying out. It should be kept evenly moist, but not wet. 

In hot summer weather a pile can break down in as little as two weeks. It helps to turn the pile several times to mix it and bring the bottom stuff to the top. Turning a pile is easy. Keep an unused area next to the pile. Using a four-prong cultivator (a hand tool), pull the pile into the empty space and leave it there. At the next turning, pull the pile back onto the previous area.

Having the pile directly on the ground is essential so it can be worked by earthworms and beneficial bacteria. The pile will attract plenty of worms; there is no need to buy them. There is also no need to buy bags of worm castings for your garden. Your finished compost will have plenty already.

We never turn compost in the winter, and it stacks up and becomes anerobic. In spring it is gooky and stinky. After it is turned to let some air in, the odor disappears and the compost returns to normal. 

Finished compost is black. Any color in the pile that is lighter than black is unfinished compost. Unfinished bits can be pulled out and used in a new pile. Use the finished compost as side dressing by your plants, spread it on garden beds after fall harvest, or work it into the soil. -jmm