Posted: 1/3/2010 10:58:56 AM EDT
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Yep scored the shit. A neighbor has an old barn that has the open shelter side loaded up with horse manure. Most of its dry and it varies in age - I'll add some of the oldest in when I turn my red clay and compost the rest of it with grass clippings, etc.
'Bout time to start working it up for me. I don't have a real large garden site but I plan to turn the site with a plow, disc it up and build a series of raised bed areas. I'll dig out several inches of soil (red clay), add a 3-4 inch layer of manure, 3-4 inches of soil, another 3-4 inches of manure, etc., and cap it off with soil. I'll soil test it (soil and manure mix) and lime to adjust as needed. After this season, I'll just keep adding layers as I need to build up the areas. I usually use a good straw mulch layer to help control weeds and conserve moisture. Or, I can just plow it all in after this season and do it again. Feeback? |
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Does sound like a lot of work - enthusiasm is wearing off!
Either way, it'll be good for soil conditioning. Growing vegetables in this brick clay is tough on us and the plants. And I am going to fence it off. This year I had to harvest my garden on the hoof during deer season. 
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turn the manure a few times to make sure it's cooked well.
then I'd just put it all in and turn it under (tilled, plowed, disked, whatever) I do manure removal, anybody wants manure, it's certainly out there, check craigslist. people are looking for places to get rid of it. and that's what we do with our clay soil just mix away. |