An emerging obsession with poo

I admit I'm obsessed with poo. It started with envious thoughts of the much-mulched plot. Well-rotted horse poo apparently, by the truckload. I am unfortunately light of a truck and therefore also of poo.

Trying to be as organic as possible, I decided against inorganic fertilizer, although it does handily fit into the back of an average-sized car.

What of bagged compost? A quick cursory glance around the Internet shows that mushroom compost seems to be the most available in hardware stores. This is actually the straw after mushrooms have been grown on it. Opinions seem to vary as to its benefit, a nutritional breakdown I found suggests that it contains around 2-0.5-2 (that's the breakdown of the main plant nutrients: nitrogen for leaves, phosphate for roots and potash for seeds). Some gardeners do not recommend it since usually it does contain some pesticides and it may make your soil more alkaline .

Fresh farmyard manure is of course still an option but in smaller quantities. I used to use chicken manure in my previous garden and although it stinks to high heaven I was impressed with its fertilizing qualities and the fact that it came in a manageable tub.

The search for fertilizer led me to a recent local craigslist post:

"All the goat poo you can use, and then some. Come out this weekend and fill up anything you want with goat poo. There is plenty - we can clean out the stalls if we need to to fill your vehicle."

I was nearly hooked.

Rabbit manure was something that I had never really considered before. Now I am viewing my guinea pigs through new eyes, wondering if they could fulfill my need for their poo more quickly. It would certainly solve the problem of what to do with their spent litter. (Which brings me on to compost bins, as in, I need one).

Of course, there is always blood meal, bone meal, and fish meal. Three guesses what is in them... Yes, lots of nitrogen (in blood and fish meal) and phosphate (in bone meal). Unfortunately, not much potash and it requires mixing the right quantities together. Of course, seaweed and wood ash are main potash sources, so all I have to do is go to the beach and start a barbecue...

Anyway, part of this weekend will be spent sourcing fertilizer, so watch out much-mulched plot!