Help~! I just put fresh horse manure in my raised beds!

Novice mistake...I just put uncomposted horse manure in my new 7" tall raised beds getting ready for the Spring vegetable season. I covered this with well-composted yard debris. (There were a million worms in the manure and the manure was mixed with sawdust) Is all lost or is there anything I can do to help my garden this year besides try to dig it all up? My thought was to let it rest for a couple of months, then go ahead???? Thanks for any feedback.

 

Yes, I once tried this and with great success! I covred the manure with 24cm of soil and the garden veggies when out of control. The growth explosion was unreal. The corn grew 12 feet tall, the tomatoes produced 454gram specimens, and the bell peppers were plump and huge! The roots were warmed and well fed is my theory...

 

You will be fine. horse poo is fairly mild as far as manure goes. Good thing it was not raw chook poop (chicken manure.) May your vegetables be huge and healthy

Liz

 

That must of ben alot of horse poo!! ;)

 

Be aware though that horse manure can contain a lot of weed seeds. Mulch well once your soil is good and warmed and seedings/plants are up and growing.

 

I concur on the weed seeds. The previous owner of our property got "fertilizer" from the boarding stables up the road. This horse poop was also "donated" to the gardens in the public park across the road. Both areas-- our property and the park-- are now infested with bindweed. This is a terrible scourge that I'm stuck with, thanks to that horse poop.

 

Bindweed - I encountered that years ago in a customer's garden and used to loosen it with a garden fork then pull it out. Very long root and I always wondered if we were very effective toward eradicating it.
Haven't encountered any since but heard that the way to get rid of it is to use a cloth drenched in vegetation killer (ie Roundup) and wipe down the plant
Anyone know anything about just how long those roots are and if that is a good way to deal with this weed?

 

I can say from experience that bindweed roots can go on forever. They will work their way under a road to pop up in the yard across the street. Pulling the roots just encourages new growth. A fraction of an inch of root left in the ground will result in a new plant. It blooms and seeds prodigiously and the seed remains viable for decades. Uprooted bindweed canl sit on a griddle-hot driveway for days then spring to life at the first sprinkle of rain. Truly a scourge for gardeners.

The internet is full of people who suffer and labour with bindweed. We are BAGs-- Bindweed Afflicted Gardeners. There are many sad tales but few tried and true solutions.

I will convey here what I've learned after reading through many sad stories, keeping in mind that I don't and won't use Roundup or other chemical killers in my garden.

- the old, I mean really really old, agricultural literature says the solution is "vigorous cultivation". In the old days, "cultivation" meant knocking weeds down with a hoe. The idea is to deprive the plant of sunlight by constantly removing the top growth.
- the old gals in my hort society concur. Their words of wisdom: "just keep at it!"
- bindweed cannot grow in the shade. But it will JUMP patches of shade to arrive at a fresh sunny patch... so it is a pioneer plant that will not be around in the half-century or so that it takes a field to become a forest. Small comfort.
- bindweed is a plant for dry, crappy soil. One gardener tried to fight it by spreading a truckload of manure on his garden in an effort to make the soil too "rich" for the bindweed. I don't know if this worked, but I suspect not
- one success story that took one woman several years of hard work: painstakingly digging up every millimeter of root. Following each root, each node, each trail wherever it leads and digging. This will only work for a relatively new infestation-- established bindweed roots can go down six feet.

My solution is to simply accept it. I fight it when I have the time and try to prevent it from going to seed. I pay the brat across the street a dollar for every container he fills with bindweed flowers. I tell myself that the roots are penetrating the soil and building pathways for water, and worms. I console myself that the bindweed is NOT stealing nutrients from my plants and veggies because my soil is already nice and fertile and healthy--there's enough to share.

Bindweed must have SOME useful role in the web of life, some adaptive value. I wish I knew for sure what it was.

 

- the old, I mean really really old, agricultural literature says the solution is "vigorous cultivation". In the old days, "cultivation" meant knocking weeds down with a hoe. The idea is to deprive the plant of sunlight by constantly removing the top growth.

Can I recommend some chickens. 2 or 3 will do the job of cultivation particuarly if you feed them in the afflicted area. This method has worked for me with wandering Jew may work for this one.

Liz

 

Neat idea. I've got two chickens who do a great job of eating and scratching up pretty much anything underfoot. My girls are, unfortunately, in trouble with the law. These renegade hens have been declared illegal under our municipal bylaws and I can't let them run around in sight of the locals, who will rat me out.

More thoughts... the roots of a single bindweed "plant" can run over several hundred square feet. Each plant puts up dozens of flowering shoots from dozens of horizontal runners. They're like octupuses (octopi?) with underground tentacles ranging over a huge amount of land. You'd need a lot of chickens to do major damage to that amount of interconnected biomass.

The afflicted area in my yard is about a half an acre. And growing.

 

Time to have your city council review your bylaws... Vancouver is... and that is very significant for a snob city.... get your councillors to allow for chickens, and no Roosters however, for the back yard, it is very GREEN to do so!

 

Our municipality is (still) run by the oligarchs of the once-powerful tobacco farms. For these guys it's a class thing. Chickens in backyards = low class, dirty, poor, uneducated, immigrant, vermin, low-rent and desperate. All the stupid cliches of a mentality solidly locked in 1950s suburban bigotry. More importantly, perhaps, is the perceived loss of neighbourhood property value once those #)&%#)* chickens move in!

But a serious chicken fight is underway. The town hasn't taken action against the other "offender", other than to send a cease and desist letter. But there are loopholes in the bylaw and we are prepared to defend ourselves. We've been blogging and doing our best to show how silly the old ideas are, and encourage the old guard to get with the program, like other forward-thinking municipalities have done. I think the bandwagon might be our best tactic.

 

You go!!! Chook power (chicken power)
Maybe you need to get into council. Letter writing to local papers might be another way to pull the chain. I personaly love my chook cultivators. I am on half acre garden and 4 half of paddock. The worst I have to contend with are blackberries but even those are now under control. The goats look after the paddocks and the secateurs are once more in control of the garden. Looks like we have it here too in all states bar Northern Territory. Was bought here in 1800's. I must say I have not heard of it being a huge problem here but will search more to find out

Liz

 

Thank you greengarden bev. A very specific and helpful answer for control of bindweed. Frequent cultivation it is then. Makes perfect sense that depriving the plant of light should deter it (at least on your own property) :-/

A thought crosses my mind for those who will not use chemical killers. I remember reading of those who loaded a spray bottle with vinegar to keep patios and walkways clear of unwanted vegetation. Never got around to trying it though and perhaps it is more suited to use in areas where one does not expect to plant things. Must change the ph of the soil I would think although perhaps only temporarily

Good luck in your fight to keep chickens. With only a couple it seems more like 'pets' and people have all sorts of unusual pets. You'd be surprised (or maybe not) The oddest one I heard of was a Vietnamese Pot-bellied pig for a pet, leash and all. There are many people who have rabbits, small goats...

 

The onley weard pet that I have is a Bearded Dragon "sorry to be off topic":

http://www.dachiu.com/gallery/pix.html

they like dandlion flowers but no other weed that I know of :)

 

Okay, a Bearded Dragon definitely qualifies as a "weird pet" Too bad some of these critters couldn't be trained to a diet of specific weeds similar to the way dogs can be used to detect drugs...

Let's see, we have gone from fresh manure in raised beds to weed seeds to bindweed to chickens and now weird or unusual pets. There must be a pattern in there somewhere. Now, where do we go? :-/

 

A nice cuppa tea made from mint or similar :)) Have any of you picked Linden tree flowers and dried them in pillow slips hung up so they air dry. The Linden flowers mixed with mint brewed and cooled is a great summer drink. Add sugar to taste

Not sure which variety we used to use maybe somebody knows
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilia

Liz

 

Of course. why did I not see that coming? ("a pattern in there somewhere") ; )

I hope you get a response from someone who knows about which variety of linden to use for the drink. I would be interested in the answer myself. Possibly it does not matter?

Lots of fresh snow during the night and winds to accompany. Perfect time to escape mentally and entertain thoughts of a "great summer drink" :-)

 

We have finaly hit autumn. I am so over our summer just gone. The fire damage has been extraordinary. I passed a section yesterday an already the natives are growing new green tips.
We have now had fire in the south , floods in the north. an earthquake of 4.7 in eastern Victoria which I felt sitting at the computer. Now we are just waiting for a plague. Wonder what it will be.

Liz

 

Hahahaahahaa k Baron. Wish I could have seen that corn.