Manure: It’s kind of like Money

Pardon me for using that dirty word on a blog that is supposed to be PG. We don’t usually talk about it, but it is, unfortunately, a necessary part of life, one that we all have to deal with, alas, until the Kingdom comes.

I am speaking, of course, of unrighteous mammon. A.k.a. money. Manure is a lot like money, but cleaner and less dangerous.

To paraphrase Dolly Levi, “manure, pardon the expression, is like money.”

“Hey! Where you takin’ my $#!+?”

It ain’t worth a thing unless it’s spread around, encouraging young things to grow.

Bed 6 is now covered with a layer of half rotted autumn leaves, and a very thick (around 12″) layer of muck, a.k.a. hay and sheep/steer manure, mostly not rotted at all.

Conventional gardening wisdom recommends against putting fresh manure directly on the beds as the high nitrogen content can burn the roots, not to mention the hygiene issues. Can you imagine digging, say, carrots, out of a bed of fresh manure? A year’s ablutions would be insufficient to render that carrot appetizing to one who knew.

However, in this case, it’s January. That was spread on the 4th, the First Saturday of the New Year. We won’t plant anything into it until St. Patrick’s day* at the earliest (potatoes) so it has a good two months to age before planting and 5 months or more before planting our tomatoes and squash into it. Longer still before we even think about harvesting our first potato.

Secondly, bed 6 is devoted to potatoes, tomatoes and squash all of which are weeds when left to themselves in a bed of hot manure. Especially squash. Nothing likes it hot like a volunteer zucchini.

*Except for our experimental winter planted potatoes. Those are already buried under the leaves. We’ll see if they are able even to poke out above ground come Spring.