|
Very nice work with the compost! I've never sustained attention well enough to use our compost bins as anything other than a raccoon/skunk/chipmunk/squirrel feeder.
On manure, a wide variety of paths available, none of them wrong.
We use horse manure simply because the neighbors have horses and want to get rid of their waste. He brings it over in the fall with his tractor and dumps it into the middle of the gardens and then I spread it out about four inches deep with an iron rake. It's not well-composted at first but it breaks down fine beneath the snow by spring. The internet will tell you that this is the least efficient way of doing it but it's free so what do I care?
Others spread fresh cow manure in the fall or very early spring. Usually this is done with a spreader. If you don't have vehicle access to your backyard, don't bother with this approach. Fresh cow manure is . . . wet.
Many farms actively monetize their waste. Some local farms probably sell bulk manure, and probably there is someone with a dump truck who runs a delivery business on the side. Ask around. Other farms might sell bagged, composted manure as a value-added product. And there's the store-bought approach, which is fine too. Either way, generally think about spreading fresh manure in the fall, and composted manure in the spring--probably somewhere in the ballpark of one to four inches deep depending on whether it's fresh (more) or composted (less) and whether the soil is poor (more) or already rich (less). You can work it in a little bit but more and more I'm swayed towards a no- or less-till approach. Don't bury the good stuff.
Other common supplemental approaches involve chickens and worm bins.
All of this is fine in my view--whatever works best for you with available resources.
|