Actually, more like about five or six loads. After moving old horse manure from our neighbor's corral a couple of month ago by shoveling it into the bed of her truck and then scraping it out at our place, we decided to pay someone else to move the rest. This manure's been sitting in the corral for about a year so it's nicely aged, albeit not really composted since it hasn't been turned or tended.
It took a local fellow with a front end loader less than an hour to move the whole pile from her place to ours. I'm thrilled at the prospects of having it for the garden but also a bit intimidated by the quantity. A little bobcat would be a really handy piece of machinery to have on hand!
We need to get this moved and/or contained within the next three months before the summer monsoons present the possibility of flooding, which could wash it all away. So far, we've moved half a dozen wheelbarrow loads over to our hoop beds and are talking about doing some lasagna gardening (sheet mulching) somewhere to grow squash.
The idea for the hoop beds was planted when someone commented here a long time ago about a German method of piling up brush, topping it with soil, and planting in it. I couldn't find the comment so I don't remember what it was called. We wanted to do some kind of raised bed but very casual.
We decided to make a circle about 6 feet wide with chickenwire and fill it with some of the dead brush from the property.
Once there was a good layer in there, one that would hopefully discourage the burrowing critters from getting up into the soil, we started filling it with old horse manure. When we ran out of manure, we left the beds to settle for a while.
Now that we've got enough poop to fill it up to cover all the wood, we've done so. A layer of dirt will go on top and then we'll plant some squash seeds in it. With any luck, we'll be enjoying some nice tasty squash later in the season.This only made a small dent in the huge manure pile shown above, though, so I've still got a lot of work left to do!
12 comments:
Hugelcultur! Me likey.
You certainly should! Squash love manure! That's what I love about lasagna gardening, it's so easy and no shoveling! Have fun and come visit when you can.
I *think* it's called hugelkultur? If I remember right, it may be a permaculture thing.
Looks good! We just found a source for composted horse manure, too. If it ever stops raining here we need to haul enough over to build some new beds, too.
Thanks, y'all! Now I have the name and can read up more about it. From a quick look online, it appears I remembered pretty well and made the beds correctly, although I guess most people don't bother trying to contain it with the chicken wire. LOL
What a smart idea for making beds with what you have!
I was told it was called a hugelbeet, and I just made a huge one this past weekend, ended up 14 feet long, 5 feet wide and 4 and half feet high.
We are planning on doing one more this spring as well..
I hear you on the desire to sometimes have a small bobcat on the farm, I do the same as you, I hire a gentleman down the road, he comes and moves stuff that would take me days in an hour flat.
I had never see anyone try it in a circle or with the wire, I think that is a clever idea, I will look forward to hearing how what you like or don't like about this method.
You shouldn't be intimidated, just look forward to all those homegrown foods. A little hard work just makes you stronger. Think of that pile as a gym membership that will also feed you.
mollyjade - I believe in getting ideas from all over! Can't claim they're mine, but at least I'm putting them to work.
farmgal - wow, that sounds huge! What are you growing in it?
I have a small natural quite shallow gully that I've been tossing all my prunings in lately. If the summer rains don't wash them away, I'm hoping to set it up as a freeform hugelkultur (or hugelbeet) next spring. I'd love to have a strip of berries growing in it and it would help rainwater soak in instead of just running off the property.
Spotty Dog Farm - haha. You want a membership in my gym? I'll let you come do the hard work for free! Me, I think I need an epsom soak.
hi, the one in full sun is to grow different kinds of melons.
The one is part sun and part shade, is for a kitchen garden, it will have cucumbers and Summer Sqaush and greens, with the sides being planted with greens,onions and other salad fixin's like radishes etc.
Mmmm, that makes me hungry just thinking about it!
I need to rig up something like this for all my chicken poop!
Green Bean - yah, but keep in mind that chicken poop is hotter than horse poop. Be best to compost it first, probably.
Or did you mean you need to find some idiot neighbor to take a humongous pile of animal manure away for you? ;-)
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