Manure for your Garden
While not many hobby gardeners like to talk about manure, it can be the most important ingredient to keep plants healthy and thriving with nutrients. Depending on what area of the country you live in you might be used to using a certain type of manure on your gardens. Some of the most common types of manure used on both flower and vegetable gardens are cow manure, horse manure, sheep, pig manure and even chicken manure.

Posted Tuesday, April 11, 2006

In order of manure with the best nutrients; chicken manure is highest in potassium though not used as often as cow or horse manure. Cow or horse manure is most often the easiest to find, and farmers will usually give it away if you want to haul it. Cleaning out stalls and pens is a chore than many farmers are more than willing to share! You can also find bagged cow manure throughout many home centers. Horse, chicken, sheep or pig manure is a little harder to find.

When you decide that your garden needs a pick me up you should be aware that fresh manure can ‘burn’ some types of plants due to a “chemical” reaction. The best time to actually use manure in your garden is in the fall when your vegetable and flower gardens have died off for winter. Manure that sits on the soil over the winter will be absorbed by the soil so that your plants will most benefit from the manure nutrients.

You really won’t need much manure in your hobby greenhouse. The best method in using manure in the greenhouse is just by adding a handful to your largest pots, and by putting it at the bottom where the roots will reach it when they are more mature. Manure is difficult to store and may not smell as well when stored in your greenhouse. When you add manure to your garden you won’t notice the smell so much because of the open air.