No, pretty sure that was “Landfill”, Imac’s choice for this week’s header challenge theme, so no pictures of Phil on his land (Land Phil) but now you are reminded of why Phil is called Dirt, you know…”Fill Dirt Wanted”.
This then would be my pictorial representation of “Landfill” from the farm perspective. I have no idea if landfills exist in England (where Imac lives) like they do in America, Washington state to be exact, but they are not necessarily my favorite sort of thing, perhaps necessary, rather debatable an controversial and I would rather “fill” my head with positive things today rather than flirt with the negative.
So here we are, Vicktory Farm & Gardens main crew, filling the land with humussy nitrogeny minerally goodness. Just in time for fall planting.
The sheep manure you see in this bucket came from the protected area, an awning covered and chainlinked enclosure, where the ewe’s and lambs have been spending their nights since lambing ended (back in March). Now all the lambs are big and strong and nearly the size of their mothers so no longer in need of protection from the coyotes, cougars, neighbor dogs and early morning bald eagles. And the Market Garden is in need of some lovely manure for the onion, garlic and strawberry beds. And since the onions go in this week and the garlic and berries shortly after a cram-packed September, today (and yesterday), moving poo is what we do.
The manure will “fill” the “land” with many good things, carbonaceous material, nitrogen, phosphate, calcium, sulfur just to name a few and the ones our soils need the most. Sheep manure isn’t as good as chicken, a third of the mentioned nutrients actually, but it is what I’ve got right now and once tilled in later today I can plant onion seeds much sooner than if I put on this much chicken manure.
Those lovely rich things in the poo will not only fill the land and feed the plant life that we will purpose to grow, it will also bring in and feed the little animals, microscopically little most of them, and fungi and bacteria, the good ones. And those little buggers in the soil will then in turn aid and feed the plants as well. Some of them will actually help deliver the minerals in the manure to the plants’ roots.
Well my time inside is well over, hope you enjoyed my “Landfilling” experience I had for you today. Go see what my fellow Challengers have for Mac’s theme.
Here’s a little manure chart for you, iffin’ you’re interested: The numbers under the nutrient express the pounds of nutrient in a ton of manure.
| Source | % Mois-ture | Nitro-gen | Phos-phate | Pot-ash | Cal-cium | Mag. | Sul-fur | Iron | Cop-per | Zinc | Boron |
| Dairy | 79 | 11 | 5 | 12 | 5 | 2 | 1.5 | 0.1 | 0.01 | 0.04 | 0.01 |
| Beef | 74 | 14 | 11 | 14 | 2.4 | 2 | 1.7 | 0.1 | 0.03 | 0.03 | 0.03 |
| Swine | 75 | 10 | 7 | 13 | 11.4 | 1.6 | 2.7 | 0.6 | 0.04 | 0.12 | 0.09 |
| Horse | 65 | 14 | 5 | 14 | 15.7 | 2.8 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 0.01 | 0.03 | 0.03 |
| Sheep | 65 | 21 | 7 | 19 | 11.7 | 3.7 | 1.8 | 0.3 | 0.01 | 0.05 | 0.02 |
| Chicken | 75 | 25 | 25 | 12 | 36 | 6 | 3.2 | 2.3 | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.01 |
Well done Lanny, I thought you would be on the ball with my choice of Landfill.
Very neat shot for your Header too, but the chart went right over my head,lol.
you left off one of the most important poos – goat poo! I think it isn’t up there with the good stuff – so hard and pellety – but we certainly have mounds of it! So dry here poo is powderizing instead of composting.
i was trying to think of something creative to do with the poo chart but sadly i can’t… ha ha ha
smiles, bee
xxoxoxooxox
I’m sure you’ve been accused of talking c**p in the past Lanny, well this week you’ve excelled yourself!
Horse muck is about the only form of poo that I’ve dug into the garden before. My tomatoes came up lovely and big, but they did have a peculiar taste.
Lanny: I don’t garden as much as in my younger life with children so I enjoyed the work envolved with having a farm. That is some powerful enrichment for your soil. I saw your header photo earlier and felt that was the way you were heading.
There’s a band here in Ohio called “Phil Dirt and the Dozers.” True story! haha! Looks like your land will be well prepared for planting time.
I love the play on words. Great stuff, Lanny.
Hi Lanny, Oh poo..it looks like great poo too! Your gardens will really grow. You are so right with the chicken poo and in our area it is Turkey poo..very rich in N and will burn your crops if it is not aged.
I hope you are all well there and just having a busy harvest season.
I have corn coming this weekend..so will cook it up and freeze it for winter..an all day job but I like having that corn on the cob taste all winter long..and so do the grands:)
I prefer fresh cream and sugar on my strawberries.