Manure Mondays

Blessings Darlings!

I know what mot of you thought when you saw the title of this post - aren't ALL Mondays "Manure"? But I'm talking literally here, not metaphorically. 

I have a manure date next Monday! With the beautiful Suz (and by extension with her beautiful and bountiful manure producing ponies). We'll fill another 9 or 10 buckets with well-aged manure for my garden. There the wonderful if weedy manure will be layered with straw and I'll plant my veggies in it. 

Manure makes me happy happy.  I'm special that way.  The manure makes my veggies even happier than I am.  One year I got all the beans we could eat PLUS 8 pounds to freeze from 36 square feet of garden, all due to the combination of horse manure and a Beltane ritual that involved Epona. 

Just remember - horse manure is "hot" compared to ruminant manure in that using it without it being aged will damage plants from too much nitrogen too quickly.  It is also comparatively very weedy since horse digestion doesn't deal with the seeds they eat the same way ruminant digestion does.

Remember - the buckets are all 3.5 gallon to 5 gallon ones, mostly with lids, that I got for FREE.  All food grade, too, not that it matters for manure (when I use them for storing wheat/other food stuff that matters).  I get them by checking at the bakery departments of any grocery store I go to, especially when I get to the 'big city' to go to the bank or Costco.  They are in hot demand where I am now since this is rural rather than the suburban area I used to live in.  Folks here keep farm animals, and buckets and farm animals go hand in hoof/paw.  Carrying food, carrying water, collecting waste, collecting eggs, milking - you name it and a bucket is involved in it.  You cannot have too many buckets.

Suz and I used to 'package' the manure in big black trash bags.  But they tear, are awkward to fill, etc.  Buckets are better.  OTOH, using the now-rare buckets I can get for manure rather than food storage would be a problem for food storage.  I guess it's a good thing I can't afford to store any more food right now, eh? 

So I'm having a happy Friday, anticipating Manure Monday!

Frondly, Fern

Herb Garden Plan

Blessings Darlings!

I've sort of decided to put in a raised herb garden in the front yard.  However, I suspect the Chubby Hubby is going to tell me to have it elsewhere, because he thinks that flowers and such belong in a front yard and useful stuff in a back 40.

So I'm not really sure WHERE it will go.

OTOH, I've decided that it will probably be made of 8 railroad tie type wooden beams, stacked two deep, held in place by drilling two holes (one at each end) of them and pounding a 12 inch metal stake thru' them into the ground.  So the area will be, I dunno 4' by 4' or 5' by 5', whatever length they come in.

The ground within will be lined heavily with newpaper, my usual approach for smothering grass and weeds.  Then I'll dump the contents of my 'compost bin' -  the  30 gallon garbage can I've put all our kitchen waste in for the past year - on top of that.  And in will go my seedlings, as well as any herbs I have to buy since the rosemary seeds, among a few other herbs, haven't sprouted. 

I'll need to buy some peppermint, too, to put somewhere where it won't be a problem.  It can be VERY invasive, but like many of the herbs its flower attract bees by the bushel and thus help keep bees going strong and help insure that pollinators come visit all my plants.  Which is important to the vegetable garden!

How does your garden grow?

Frondly, Fern