[AT] Jobs/ Stores (now gardens)

[Mark Greer]

Horse manure is great for gardens. If you can find a stable that beds in 
sawdust then it is even better because you get less weeds than with straw 
bedding. I pile a layer (2 inches or so) on my garden each year and you 
ought to see how my tomatoes and beans grow. I've been manuring my garden 
this way yearly since 1995 and it keeps getting better each year. A 
hog-farmer neighbor told me I'd "ruin my soil puttin' all that horseshit in 
there" and I told him my Dad did the same thing for as long as I can 
remember and his garden just kept getting better. He told me that was not 
possible. I guess I should be using that expensive granular stuff he puts on 
his corn and soybeans. Chicken litter/manure can be used sparingly in the 
fall if it is left to over-winter and mellow a bit. I find the best thing to 
do with it is pile it on my compost pile and let it rot up with all the 
other stuff I load in there and then use the compost in the garden as a side 
dressing during the growing season.
Mark
Celebrating the Second Amendment one fine firearm at a time.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Indiana Robinson" <robinson46176 at gmail.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 4:29 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] Jobs/ Stores (now gardens)
>
> Horse manure... No, that isn't a comment on your question. :-) Just my
> fertilizer of choice.
> Around here there a lot of little 5 acre places with a half dozen or
> more horses on them. Those folks sometimes have a terrible time
> getting rid of the stuff. We have a number of commercial stables here
> and few of them have much land. They will sometimes load and haul it
> to your place for free. Your area may be a different story, I have not
> been in Texas in 50 years and I suspect that there has been a change
> or two. :-) Beware of fresh chicken manure, too hot.
> One of the best things you can do is what serious gardeners have done
> about forever. Diversify... Some years some crops do better and on
> another similar year a whole different set of plants do better. Just
> don't put all of your eggs...
> Fall carrots here keep very well still in the ground for much of the
> winter especially with something like a good covering of leaves or
> straw. Corn and peas both freeze very well but peas are so much work
> and so cheap in the store I just don't bother with them any more. If
> you don't mind a little canning I reeeeeealy love pickled beets and so
> do a lot of people. If you have the jars they make a good trade item.
> A BIL and his wife used to love canning potatoes.
> -
> You speak of barter. Sometimes you can barter some big garden labor. I
> know of a lady in Vermont who keeps a few "Hippy shelters" and often
> has college students living in them in the summer in exchange for
> labor etc. I believe one was an old school bus, one an old travel
> trailer and a third a shed of some kind. Not even something most folks
> would want to use but she still had willing students ready to move in
> for the summer mostly as an adventure.
> -
> The older I get the more I like gardening up above ground level. I am
> fond of raised beds for a lot of stuff. Even 8 inches higher helps a
> lot. I also use some old tires with the upper sidewall cut out
> (Roto-Zip) and have a couple of old tractor rears that same way. We
> grew some tomatoes last year in an old refrigerator with the doors off
> and laying on its back. filled it with pretty common dirt part way up
> then about 8" of really good stuff. It worked very well. This year I
> will put a decorative wood wall around it just for looks. I also have
> a batch of plastic RV antifreeze barrels that I will cut the top off
> of and fill then with soil. There will be drain holes in the sides
> about 2' up from the bottom so stuff will not drown but so that the
> bottom will hold extra water.
> Pumpkins and squash I grow on the flat on a small mound.
> A fairly small green house can keep you in fresh green stuff about all 
> winter.
> -
> You can go all sorts of directions with gardening, including overboard...
> ;-)
>
> -- 
> Have you hugged your horses today?
>
> Francis Robinson
> aka "farmer"