More Manure Chronicles

I saw another ad for "well-rotted horse manure" on Kijiji. It was at a place here in town, so I emailed the person, asking for directions and what would be a good time to drop by.

That was back in September. I never did make it to the place in amidst harvesting and preserving everything in my garden that could be subject to a hard frost while we vacationed in New England the first two weeks of October.

I kept the email from the horse-owner, so when I got back I asked if any was left. Oh yes, there was. So Monday morning I went to the place (it's about 10 minutes from my house) with my tarp-lined CRV and loaded up. This stuff was well-rotted: absolutely no manure smell. They had used coarse sawdust for the horse bedding and the result was a nice crumbly dark brown product. It was much lighter than the stuff I had gotten in Marmora and I quickly got a good pile of it into my CRV.

On the way home I stopped at Costco to stock up on calcium tables, vitamin D, and soy milk. The stock should last me into the winter.

When I got home, I topped up my yard waste compost pile with a tub of it. Another tub fertilized the rhubarb, elderberry bushes, and saskatoons. Then I topped off the one planting box I've been filling with more leaves and a good layer of the horse manure. More went on a three other raised beds and my small square planting boxes. I still have a cartful (inside the tarp -- just hauled it out of the CRV and into the cart) to dispense on my black raspberry row and my clump of red raspberries.

By then the sky had cleared to a brilliant blue so I went out for possibly my last kayak ride of the summer. It was a little windly on Little Lake but the trees still have some exquisite color.