Skip to main content

getting my garden ready for winter

I have raised garden beds. I clean the beds out, putting the old plants in my compost pile. I could just leave the beds until spring, but I want to do more. I decided to buy some horse and chicken manure on eBay. They send it in large 5 kilo plastic buckets and it only cost 1 Euro, + 4 Euro for postage. I will spread the manure over my beds, add a thin layer of leaves, and maybe even some torn up news paper. Then I will place a black plastic tarp over the bed, with some holes in it for water to get in. I'll let this compost over winter. In the spring I'll mix the compost into my soil and hopefully be ready to plant. Horse manure is good because it has allot of straw in it. Chicken manure is pretty strong (I’ve read). I don’t want to over use it. Never put manure directly on plants because it will burn them. I’m hoping the combination of manure, leaves, and newspaper will attract worms to my raised beds. Worms break up soil, and worm castings make the best plant food. Anyway, this is the plan. I ordered the manure today. Sometime next week (God willing) I should be able to get my small garden ready for winter. The black plastic warms the soil, and I may even get to plant early next spring. It also keeps weed seeds from growing. I only know this from books...I'm trying this for the first time. I'll let you know if it works!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Sounds great.
I'm working on the same thing. Cleaning out the beds, Eric picked up the compost. We just have to haul it over to the beds and put them in.

Popular posts from this blog

Olivia is born

My niece had a beautiful baby girl named Olivia Rose (Beautiful name). Everyone is very excited and thank God healthy! Congratulations to the whole family! Hugs to my sister Shelley who is now a proud grandma for the 2nd time. My sister Dianna has 6 grand kids (I think). My brother and I are too young for such an blessing. At least our kids are too young. I'm going to have to wait to be called grandma. Here is a cool picture I took off Shelley's blog. It shows Eric (the tired but proud grandpa) Lissa with her first daughter Charlotte, and then a sleeping Olivia Rose. 3 generations in one shot. How fast life goes by! How beautiful life can be!

painting the garage

Rick goes home in the morning. I'm sure he will be happy to see his kids again. 3 weeks is along time to be away. The time has passed so fast. It's been really wonderful! So wonderful!!! We may stay up all night, that way he can sleep well on the flight. Hopefully his jet lag will be less this way! Anyway, here is his painting. It turned out more then good! I really love it...just like I love my brother! We will have to do this again soon!

chicken coop idea

Why not start with an IBC and cut a hole for the door? You could build closed laying boxes into it, and something for the chickens to roost on. Put some straw or saw dust on the floor. You could add vents to the side for air. If it sat inside a chicken run that you can walk into, the chickens could be safe, dry and happy. I have an extra IBC. Maybe this could be my chicken house? I bet I could even plant the outside of it with mud and grass for extra insulation and good looks.