Using Manure In Your Garden

Using Manure In Your Garden

Farmers and gardeners have used manure for hundreds of years as an organic soil amendment. This animal waste is just organic matter that has been broken down by living compost shredders . It is rich in nitrogen and other essential plant nutrients , but there are some cautions.

When a farmer uses it to feed his fields, there are several benefits. The organic matter is recycled, crops are fed and waste is disposed of, win-win-win. If you raise horses, cows, sheep, chickens, rabbits or any livestock, use their waste for your own win-win. If you have to buy it and haul it, then you should think it over.

Most dung is rich in both macronutrients and micronutrients, but not richer than compost , which you can make on site. You should only use manure if:

it is free or cheap,
it is close and cheap to haul, and,
you don’t have enough other organic matter to compost.

Why? Because fuel costs make it expensive to haul in, and if fresh it must be composted anyway before use, or it will burn your plants. If you do have a cheap easy source, great, use it. It is high in nitrogen, created as the animals break down proteins in their feed. It also contain roughly half as much phosphorus and potassium, as well as many secondary and micronutrients that your garden needs. Lets look at them a little closer by type.

Horse manure is often free for the hauling in areas where horses are raised. Straw and sawdust are used for bedding, so you’ll probably be getting a mix - all the better. Eating both grasses and hay, their feed is full of seeds, most of which pass through whole.

The fresh poop will burn your plants, while the bedding will actually leach nitrogen while decaying. Composting will solve both problems and also kill the weed seed.

A layer of fresh horse dung placed under a hotbed or cold frame will heat the bed above as it composts.

If plowed fresh into your garden, it will burn your plants and grow a great crop of weeds.

Cow Manure (or steer) has become commonly available since the advent of the feedlot. Discount stores and garden centers sell it cheap, though fuel prices are taking their toll on the prices. The bag stuff is well composted and nearly weed-seed free.

If you live near a feedlot or dairy, you may also get it cheaply in bulk. Weeds will be a bigger problem, though ruminants digest and destroy much of the seed. Composting will help as well.

Chicken Manure is my favorite, and not just because chickens are more my size. Any poultry waste will do, though I find turkeys a little intimidating. They are twice my height and many times my weight

Bird waste is much higher in nitrogen, because birds do not urinate. Their liquid waste is mixed with the solid. Instead of urinating, their poop contains uric acid crystals. Fresh, it will kill most plants, but aged, composted or made into manure tea , it is one of the richest organic nitrogen amendment available. It also contains many other macronutrient and trace elements.

Sheep, pig, and rabbit dung are also good amendments if readily and cheaply available. Even bat guano is rich in nutrients. All should be composted, rather than used fresh. Tilled or dug in during the fall, all types (even fresh) will decompose and be ready for spring planting. But, heed the weed warning.

Happy gardening,

Geefrank

My favorite recipe for Chicken Manure Tea

The benefits of Garden Compost

Learn more about Fertilizers

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