Black Gold
Not the Jed Clampet, Texas Tea kind of black gold.
This is partially composted horse manure black gold.
…organic black gold, rather than petroleum black gold.
We’ve completely re-habbed two beds over the past two weekends…
dug out all the dirt, sifted out roots, put down dark plastic and a layer of cardboard, added in horse manure (about 1/3rd of the total soil mixture) and the sifted soil. Turned it over (and over, and over).
Put in some fall crops (kale, spinach, lettuce, kohlrabi, bok choy, daikon radishes, beets, chard.
These beds haven’t had much soil attention in three growing seasons. They needed some nutrition.
We’ve gone to a local stable and fetched many a box of manure. I think we’ve done 4 loads, 9 boxes a load.
Horse manure – from well fed horses – is high in nitrogen.
Not as high as chicken or rabbit manure.
The more composted, the better.
Generally a horse stall uses straw and/or saw dust. Straw can be pretty seedy, so it’s typical to get some weeds when you use the fresher stuff. The composting process creates a lot of heat… the heat destroys the seeds.
If you put fresh manure directly in your garden, particularly with seeds or young plants, the composting process may burn those roots as well.
Partially composted manure will be more dry, more soil like and have very little to none visible straw.
(When you see worms, you’ve got fully composted manure).
We’ve been getting partially composted. The stable dumps fresh stuff at one end of the pile… we tunnel into the other end that’s been there composting longer.
We added horse manure a number of seasons back and reaped the benefits.
We’ve been generously adding it to all the new beds and boxes as well as doing the full rehab on a few of the beds.
Check around for a stable near you. It’s great stuff.
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