Tino gets to the bottom of the greatest garden ingredient - manure, and lets gardeners know which poo is best for you.
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Manures can be really variable, in both their nutrient values and their suitability for your garden, depending on the animal of origin, what they’ve been fed, how old or ‘aged’ the product is, whether it’s been blended with straw or sawdust and what you’re trying to do with the poo.
Manures can be broadly classified into two sperate groups - hot and cold.
A ‘hot’ manure is one that is higher in nutrients, that, if used fresh on the garden can burn plants.
Cold manures include sheep droppings, cow pats, and pellets from llamas, alpacas and goats, and they are regarded as “cold” because they are lower in nutrients than their hot cousins.
All manures, whether hot or cold, should be aged before being added to the garden.
Horse, sheep and cow manures are often high in weed seeds, so aging these for some months before applying to garden beds prevents the spread of unwelcome plants.
There’s a couple of different ways of aging manures, whether hot or cold. It can be left to sit, covered with a tarp or similar and over time the nitrogen content ‘volatilizes,’ meaning it converts to a gaseous form and enters the atmosphere, leaving the poo cooler than when it was first deposited, and safe to use in the garden. The other method is composting, piling up the manure with layers of carbon-rich materials, keeping moist and aerated until it’s black, crumbly and ready to roll.
Manures can be added to gardens when beds are being prepared, and throughout the growing season as required. They can also be made into a tea to add a bit of life and some nutrient to soil. Using a permeable bag or shade cloth, add a few handfuls of your preferred poo, tie the top, and submerge in a big bucket of water for several hours. Once steeped, this mixture can be diluted further with water until it is the colour of weak tea, and applied to pots and plants.
Poo Safety - When collecting, storing or handling manures, especially fresh, it’s important to be aware of potential risks involved. It’s a good idea to wear gloves when dealing with bird and pig droppings, and it’s a great idea to wear a face mask and eye protection is dust is present, as it often is when clearing out an aviary, pigeon loft or chook coop. And give vegies a good wash before you gobble them up. Although the risk of getting crook is low, bird and pig droppings can contain E. coli and even Salmonella, so it’s better to be poo safe than sorry.
Regardless of what you’re growing, there is a perfect poo for you and your garden - from soil improvement and conditioning to free fertiliser, there is nothing that good poo can’t do!
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15 июл 2024
