Category: Garden Amendments

Embracing Our Interdependence With Nature

Garden Amendments: When Manure Is Not Manure

I attended a plant show recently where a local civic group was selling large bags of “manure” for a small donation. I was given several bags that were left over. When I opened the bags I was stunned to find that what I had was a bag of sand. It bothered me to think of how many people got that bag of sand and thought that was manure, put it in their gardens, and got what effect?

It was at that point that I realized that I was severely undervaluing the excellent manure that I offer to my clients, and the ethic that I bring to supplying a product that really is what it should be. Just because it is shit doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter, and if you have gotten a lousy bag of sand instead of manure, you might think manuring a garden doesn’t work. It does, if you get some actual manure. Manure does amazing things to our sandy soils.

Garden Amendments: About Alfalfa & Peanut Hay Fall 2011

In my In The Garden articles about the Lasagna Layer Mounds the garden amendments straw, manure, and alfalfa hay are frequently mentioned. They are the ingredients for the garden mounds, but they are something else as well. Of course we know manure is a waste product from livestock farming or ranching, and we know straw,…
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Garden Amendments: Composted Cow Manure and The Commando Garden

Composted Cow Manure is an excellent garden amendment. In the garden we focus on the soil a great deal. We work to make great compost, and if it goes in your garden the way it goes in mine you will run out of your home made compost before your compost needs are met. Composted Cow…
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Garden Amendment, Coconut Coir: What is it good for?

One of just a few garden amendments I like to use is Coconut Coir or fiber. It is the fiber from between the hard shell of the coconut and the hard outer husk. I have buckets of this when I am done opening coconuts, but the Coir I am talking about today comes to me…
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