Spreading Manure on Top of Wood Chips in Garden
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- Опубликовано: 18 сен 2024
- I took the donkey manure that I picked up in October, and spread it out on the wood chips in my garden. I'm hoping this addition will cause a spike in earthworm activity in the area, thus improving the soil, and ultimately the plant life. I'm also hoping that the manure will speed up the decomposition of the wood chips beneath them.
The manure will speed up the decomposition of the wood chips which will help to improve the soil. I throw chicken manure over aged wood chips all the time. Put a fresh load of wood chips down if needed.
Thank you for the info!
I would add a thin layer of wood chips as a caseing layer to hold the moisture in! Especially considering how dry your climate is.
I think it would be good to go back and forth between deep layers of manure/woodchips.
I would also suggest maybe planting some kind of cover crop there!
Thank you, sort of like a wood chip and manure lasagna bed. I’d like to have more cover crops, though I’m not sure how they’d manage with the thick layer of mulch.
@@WestTexasGardenExperiment Many cover crops will grow fine in mulch. nitrogen affixing an all :) Soak/Sprout before planting can help. I'll be sprouting all my seeds from now on to avoid rodents.
If it were me in the desert like that I'd be trying to put like 2 feet of organic matter on that soil to protect it for a while.
Thanks for the info. I'd love to have a 2ft layer of organic matter, and I think I'll eventually get there. I only have the weekends and holidays to chip away at all these little projects. If I focus on one thing, something else gets neglected. Between spreading wood chips, making compost, extending swales, collecting manure, and gardening in general, I stay pretty busy.
@@WestTexasGardenExperiment Good thing time is on your side :) As things go on they will only improve now that you have those swales and all that existing organic matter!
On the donkey manure,, my biggest issue is Bermuda grass sprouting. Everywhere I put horse manure, the Bermuda shows up. I have huge compost piles. 12ft x12ftx4ft tall. This doesn't kill the seeds because there's always some on the outside edges that don't get fully heated, regardless of turning it over. I spread this out on pasture area and bite the bullet and bring in mushroom.compost for the gardens. I use a 14ft dump trailer and travel 2 hours to get it in Gonzales, tx. It is very inexpensive if you don't count travel costs. Last year I had huge mushrooms popping out of my gardens. It was pretty cool.
Hey Wayne, Bermuda is hard to get rid of. Maybe with the manure on top of the chips, it'd be easy to pull up if I spot it. I'd love to have mushroom compost, but it looks like Gonzales is 4 hours from where I am. I'm happy to have access to free wood chips and donkey manure for now, but I'll keep my eyes open for other great resources. Thank you
I'd say woodchips over, just to protect all the goodness from direct sunlight. But either way, this'll be hugely beneficial for your site
Thanks, that may be what I eventually end up doing. Someone mentioned that the manure can cause a crust on the surface when it gets dry.
Long term goal, I would put the manure on top of the wood chips just as you did, the manure can maintain a better moisture level than the wood chips, in that way the wood chips layers will decompose faster and their longer decomposing process would be reduced. Otherwise, the manure under would decompose faster, transforming in soil quickly and the wood chips would last for way longer
Thank you, I’d love to expedite the breakdown of the chips.
Manure on wood chips, after a rain the manure will wash into chips and the nitrogen will help with breaking down chips
Thanks, that's what I hope will happen. This manure has been piled for about 3 months. I wonder if the nitrogen content is still potent after all that time.
@@WestTexasGardenExperiment I just made a compost pile of cow manure and wood chips, I put a layer of wood chips then manure back and forth for several layers. I will use it next year. My garden is covered in a foot thick of wood chips right now. I did not put the manure on the garden because I plan on planting this year and that much nitrogen the first year is to strong. I have very poor soil ( if you want to call it soil) so I am building up soil on top and I don’t plan on using or incorporating the dirt underneath.
Did you sift your wood chips? I usually sift mine when using them in compost, but I didn’t when I mixed with the donkey manure. I think I would’ve had a better product if I’d taken the time to sift the chips, but time isn’t always easy to come by.
@@WestTexasGardenExperiment no I did not sift, the wood chips I have are tree tops from power line crew. Chips are anywhere from tiny to the size of your hand. Chips had a lot of green leaves so they had a little nitrogen with all carbon. They should take about 3 yrs to complete break down. I got about 8 to 10 truck loads delivered. Hard to beat a free resource. I did tip the guys pretty good! I have been planting raised beds for years with great success but raised beds are limited to what you can grow.
8 to 10 truck loads is a great score of chips!
Well, I'm sure you know what my answer would be. :^)
Bury all of it two or three feet down so poor-subsoil is on the top (breaking all the rules, but it kills some weeds), and then, as occasional rain exposes stones/rocks from the poor-soil, rake them out, collecting them to later make a french-drain or soakaway elswhere. It'd be considered too much work for some tastes though (which is understandable). Motors help.
Might be accomplishable over time. Lot of work for sure.
@@WestTexasGardenExperiment That is true, and what you've done is really good.
@@WestTexasGardenExperiment While I remember, this channel hyperlinked below is one I used to watch a lot although you might know of it. He has a guest (Jake VeganAthlete) on the video this episode who grows banana trees _(from a "pup" he splits from the bottom of an older banana tree from a friend of his and also MiracleFruit)_ in a desert somewhat similar to yours, and other times the host (John) has a guy who makes compost-tea "boogie brew" products _(a Brit from the West country in UK with a slight USA twang to his accent now)._ Well anyway, if you watch the video it might be worth skipping bits because otherwise it would take you an hour to watch _(but you can get the gist in say 5minutes if skipping)._ ruclips.net/video/VIitNqXI2gU/видео.html
Thanks, I actually watched that full video not too long ago. I like watching both of those guy's content. Jake's area is hotter than it is here, but it doesn't get near as cold, so he can grow more sub-tropical plants. I kind of have both extremes where it's ridiculously hot and just cold enough to make it difficult to grow a lot of things.
@@WestTexasGardenExperiment That is an interesting subtle difference (about the hot and cold). I think the host of the video channel growingyourgreens lives in Nevada. The soil looks like Mars. When it snows or freezes here in Britain, card is sticky-taped (by whatever gardener) over leaves and trees to protect them. In the hottest parts it is just about possible (with much attention) to grow a banana (but it won't fuit) outdoors without it dying, but that is only with laborious tending to it with card and placing it near a building etc. I think when people do that (and it is rare) it is a sort of bragging-rights to show the plant is not dead. An old blanket can protect say a cabbage.
Since you are not planting right away I don't think it will matter, but wood chips in the root zone are supposed to deplete nitrogen.
Only in the short term. Just add nitrogen
Thanks. When I do plant something, I’ll be sure to slide the chips and manure out of the way so I can plant into the soil. Then I can move the mulch back in place afterwards.
If you are not 100% confident that the manure is vermicide free, it might be better to stick with cactus/mesquite leaves as a source of nitrogen. After all, why taking the risk? you seem to have so much cactus/mesquite on site
Hello, one can never be 100% sure about anything. I think the potential rewards of using good manure to advance my garden outweighs the risk of it being compromised. There are many videos on RUclips about using manure in the garden, and I've rarely see someone mention any issues. Perhaps I will be fortunate as well. Either way, I will share my findings. Thank you
No ones feeding their donkey pesticides fortunately. Donkeys are tough as nails. This is probably near 100% local pasture and local hay.
I live in Oregon we produce MASSIVE amounds or hay. No-one sprays anything on it, that would be RIDICULOUSLY expensive. Hay is low profit margin crop. No farmer is wasting their profit margin spraying chemicals on their acres.
Straw on the other hand is a different deal.
Some straw may come from Monsanto Wheat crops and be COVERED in Glyphosate. Thats fron wheat.
NOT hay and NOT manure.
If you are really concerned about Glyphosate, I hope you have an alternate source for grain because All american grain is COVERED in it!
Manure is excellent. Get it from a local donkey or horse try to avoid commercial cow feed lots or commercial horse barns. They but lye in the manure to lower the Ph.
Just watched your video and realized I'm in the same dilemma. In an effort to get a garden started before an upcoming storm, I just dumped about 6-8 inches of woodchips over the whole area. In the areas that we wanted to plant into, I added compost on top of the woodchips. In your experience will this take a long time? I'm noticing very little production from seed is happening. I'm aware that next year will be better because everything will be even more decomposed, but I'd rather not have to wait an entire year. Should I add another layer of woodchips on top of the compost (that's on top of the woodchips)?
Where do you live? I live in a hot dry climate, so it took the manure a pretty long time to break down on the wood chips. Now all that I can really see is the wood chips because the manure finally broke down enough to work its way into the wood chip crevices. If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably take the time to remove the wood chips before putting down the manure. If you live a cooler wetter climate, it probably won't take near as long for your compost to break down. If you decide to put wood chips on top and make a compost sandwich, then the compost and lower chips should break down quicker, but how thick do you really want your mulch? I find it's a pain when you need to plant into thick mulch.
@@WestTexasGardenExperiment I'm in North Carolina, so we're hot and wet all the time. I mainly wanted to add as thick mulch as I could because the area that we added this garden was like a flood plain almost. Standing water year round, when I added the woodchips, no more standing water! Basically having to make my own soil essentially. I know that in years to come it'll be much better.