A great weight on any gardener's mind is compost and manure. Last year at the community gardens we were fortunate enough to have a great big pile of poo delivered. This year I am not so lucky.
London soil is dreadful. Clay-based, leached out, used as all the cats' outside litter box. Hundreds of years of builders' and tenants' rubble. Pollution from the air. Plain horrible. So it needs a bit of TLC.
I have always kept a compost bin in the back, recycling appropriate kitchen and garden waste. One year I supplemented that with pelleted chicken manure (good but expensive and stinky). What I really need is a big load of good quality top soil or manure but with the only access to the garden being through the whole house this is not going to happen in a hurry. So I am stuck with reasonable amounts of compost.
And then, cleaning out the critters' cage, it struck me that I was sitting on a gold mine - or, indeed, poo mine. Guinea pig manure to be precise. They are herbivores...they poo a lot...their litter is compostable. Hurrah!
But I wondered how good guinea pig manure would be and if I should invest in getting other organic fertilisers. There are, unfortunately, no charts about the nutritional composition of guinea pig poo, however, I found some information about rabbit manure (close enough, I reckon). Surprisingly, it seems to be really high in nitrogen, even higher than chicken manure. Also, good values of P and K. Obviously that will drop as it is mixed with litter.
So, in the compost bin it goes and I look forward to better soil. I <3 guinea pigs.
Showing posts with label poo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poo. Show all posts
Monday, December 29, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
A pile of dung!
My intention for this weekend was to level out the soil, mark out some beds, build a compost area out of chicken wire, and maybe, just maybe, sow some rocket (aka arugula).
Well, that whole plan turned into a pile of dung. Literally. After helping out at the Portsmouth Neighbourhood Clean-up event round the corner, I went round to the garden. I knew something was in the air when I arrived. A big heap of horse manure sat in the entrance to the community garden.
I phoned the garden manager to ask who it belonged to. She thought that probably the city had dropped it off. Very nice of them. Were they listening to me???
On closer inspection, it turned out that it was semi-composted. Too fresh to pile onto plants (it was still steaming a little bit and it definitely smelled of manure) but not that wet either. I decided that it probably would be good as a top dressing right now, to be forked in a little bit later.
I spread it on about 1/2 inch thick all over the plot, piling it on a bit more in the area where I want to grow winter squash and strawberries. Managed also to pull more weeds out as I went along.
Of course that meant that I couldn't do any beds or sow anything (in any case, I was getting tired and hungry). The last few days of snow, hail, rain and sunshine mean that April is round the corner and things should be picking up. Maybe I'll actually get some gardening done soon instead of just digging and dealing with shit...
Well, that whole plan turned into a pile of dung. Literally. After helping out at the Portsmouth Neighbourhood Clean-up event round the corner, I went round to the garden. I knew something was in the air when I arrived. A big heap of horse manure sat in the entrance to the community garden.
I phoned the garden manager to ask who it belonged to. She thought that probably the city had dropped it off. Very nice of them. Were they listening to me???
On closer inspection, it turned out that it was semi-composted. Too fresh to pile onto plants (it was still steaming a little bit and it definitely smelled of manure) but not that wet either. I decided that it probably would be good as a top dressing right now, to be forked in a little bit later.
I spread it on about 1/2 inch thick all over the plot, piling it on a bit more in the area where I want to grow winter squash and strawberries. Managed also to pull more weeds out as I went along.
Of course that meant that I couldn't do any beds or sow anything (in any case, I was getting tired and hungry). The last few days of snow, hail, rain and sunshine mean that April is round the corner and things should be picking up. Maybe I'll actually get some gardening done soon instead of just digging and dealing with shit...
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
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:
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!
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!
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