skyhightree1
Well-known member
Decided to use old hay the cows have crapped and peed on and try composting it and tilling it into the garden and see what happens. Has anyone tried it? The lil rooster loves when I flip it and it gets big grubs.
Trying something new
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coachg
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As long as it goes through a heat and kills the germination on any grass or weed seed in it you should like the outcome !
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skyhightree1
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Definitely going through a heat
coachg
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I use to mulch around my tomatoes with wheat straw ; newspaper grows a lot less grass and weeds !
I mulch my garden with 12 inches of spent hay every few months and at the end of the season. Worms are crazy in there. It's not been tilled in 5 years now I think.
Gotta watch for grazon/herbicide residual... so know the source. I killed my beds with neighbors manure. Didn't know he had sprayed with it. 2 years later it went in my beds, let it rest 6 weeks, planted. Everything died within 3 weeks. Curled to death.
Gotta watch for grazon/herbicide residual... so know the source. I killed my beds with neighbors manure. Didn't know he had sprayed with it. 2 years later it went in my beds, let it rest 6 weeks, planted. Everything died within 3 weeks. Curled to death.
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Hpacres440p
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Been there done that! Grass is real nice in that area now-no broadleaf anything…
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skyhightree1
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I just picked up composted horse and chicken manure that wasn't treated so I'll mix that in as well
That ought to make it grow.
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skyhightree1
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Hpacres440p
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Horse will grow whatever weeds they ate-they don't break down seeds like ruminants (I got a neighbor mad at me for that before I knew that)
farmerjan
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The only fertilizer I use is manure from the chickens and cows...because I have it.... I mulch every year with hay/straw/grass clippings/cardboard/whatever. I also got some hay that was off some fields treated for broadleaf weeds and killed all the cucumbers, squash and other plants on that one end. Now I make sure of which fields it comes from. Takes 2-3 years before it is considered safe... I don't do the Ruth Stout method of continuous mulch here yet, since the garden (just moved here 2 yrs ago) is new to me and I am trying to incorporate both the chickens using it during the off months, and garden during the growing season; but I do mulch heavily during the garden season and the chickens help break it down in the off season and get alot of the bugs and seeds out of it. There were next to no earth worms but seeing some now.
Ebenezer
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Be careful when planting vine crops next spring in that rich mix. Before you can get out of the garden, they will sprout and grow and the tendrils will be grabbing for your ankles. 
I had an uncle who got instructions from a man on how to grow tomatoes as large and as many as you could ever imagine. It started with a posthole and you put a layer of this and a layer of that and this, that and the other but all were pretty potent. Then the guy was staking with a 6 or 7' pole and picking via a stepladder by the end of the summer. So, Uncle Frank asked the question of "what if" - What if the extreme preparations makes the tomato "go to vine" and never set fruit? The man said, "Well, when you're out in the garden on a hot and sunny day and feel like you need to rest a bit, just stop under the shade of the tomato tree!"
I had an uncle who got instructions from a man on how to grow tomatoes as large and as many as you could ever imagine. It started with a posthole and you put a layer of this and a layer of that and this, that and the other but all were pretty potent. Then the guy was staking with a 6 or 7' pole and picking via a stepladder by the end of the summer. So, Uncle Frank asked the question of "what if" - What if the extreme preparations makes the tomato "go to vine" and never set fruit? The man said, "Well, when you're out in the garden on a hot and sunny day and feel like you need to rest a bit, just stop under the shade of the tomato tree!"
snakegap1
Well-known member
My experience too. I just mulched with it and they curled up and died.
The Ruth stout approach is hard to beat on a small scale.
My great uncle did similar for watermelons. He could sure grow them! Lots of manure in the big deep hole.Be careful when planting vine crops next spring in that rich mix. Before you can get out of the garden, they will sprout and grow and the tendrils will be grabbing for your ankles.
I had an uncle who got instructions from a man on how to grow tomatoes as large and as many as you could ever imagine. It started with a posthole and you put a layer of this and a layer of that and this, that and the other but all were pretty potent. Then the guy was staking with a 6 or 7' pole and picking via a stepladder by the end of the summer. So, Uncle Frank asked the question of "what if" - What if the extreme preparations makes the tomato "go to vine" and never set fruit? The man said, "Well, when you're out in the garden on a hot and sunny day and feel like you need to rest a bit, just stop under the shade of the tomato tree!"
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skyhightree1
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skyhightree1
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I'm ok with weeds I cultivate with a tractor.
