Just thought I'd put this up here - I have horse manure that I can easily bag up for you if you want to use it in your soil. It's a great conditioner, and that which I've put in has yet to sprout any weeds whatsoever. Wish I could say the same for the rotted hay, grrrr.....

But LMK if you want any, I will gladly try to meet you half way if you're far from Deer Valley area.

Just got rid of 8 bags - donated to the Ahwautukee (sp?) community garden, yay! But I get more everyday...

I'm thinking that's a "no", lol....

Sheryl, I'm far enough from Deer Valley to be uncertain whether we are talking about the Phoenix metro area or Tennessee. My guess is that either way halfway would prove too far given my location and lack of an open-bed vehicle to move it.

I, for one, greatly appreciate the generous offer! I know that my roses will communicate their disappointment to me next season.

Sheryl.
I was talking to my friend in New River about the bi-product of her two horses. She told me the hay she feeds them has Bermuda in it. I opted to "pass" on the "gift" because of stolen that may remain in tact and alive. I've thought about taking the manure and making a TEA? Thoughts?

Hi ya'll - sorry, life has gotten in the way of being on the 'net this week.

Steve - sorry, I haven't changed my address yet. I moved to Northern Phoenix from Tennessee a few months ago ... I'll have to get that changed. You're right, 1/2 way would be *quite* a distance for both of us, lol.

Susie, I know what you mean - I've been *very* leery of the Bermuda as well. However, I've been "ditch" composting a lot of my manure, and have been rather pleasantly surprised to see absolutely *nothing* coming out of that pile, save a few palo verde seedlings (and I don't think those went through the horses!) , and I have certainly seen seed heads in the Bermuda I've been feeding. It's also mixed with alfalfa and the oat hay, and still doesn't appear to be viable once it has gone through the intestinal track of a horse. And I really think with the huge amount of rain we got for nearly a week (that ruined a lot of my hay, grrrrr....) would have germinated *something*, were there anything there. Tea is definitely safer, but I saw a study that really questioned the effectiveness of teas, so ....? Really up to you. If you wanted to conduct an experiment, I'll provide the manure! I do know this is what Singh Farms supposedly uses.

For both of you, you actually don't need a truck - I'm putting a lot of it inside either feed bags or dog food bags, and it's dry. If you have a much nicer car than mine, you could throw a sheet over the back seat & floor boards and get quite a bit.

Oh, and Steve - if you figure that alfalfa pellets are just barely pre-manure, at $10-15 a 50# bag. A woman I know in Phx used to plant her roses with handfuls of premoistened pellets. Just remember, too, that this might be a good amount of nitrogen and may just result in vegetative growth instead of flowers until it starts to break down and just be a great soil conditioner, more like the manure. I'm not certain of the amount of nitrogen, only protein, I'm afraid...

Sheryl, thanks for the tip on alfalfa pellets. Giving my roses a few alfalfa pellets to help loosen up the soil at planting time sounds like a great idea. If one is planting very many roses, it proves a great deal more practical than, say, fish-heads (which I have not used, though I am convinced they would work.) I need to add it to my list of planting rituals. A lot of roses don't bloom until they are well established, and good early growth can speed that along. Are these pellets that something you get at a horse-feed store?

I finally broke down and paid a younger person to mulch my garden. The mulch of choice is a three year old product that's about half horse manure and half wood chips and shavings. So I'm counting on it to make some improvement in the soil.

Sorry I'm not going to be able to offer much more help with your soil enrichment project.

Thanks, Sheryl. Good info! I use fish emulsion at the moment and a little Osmocote on the daylilies (per Lyle). I also compost all year but don't seem to have enough to hit everything in the garden.

Funny, *fish heads*. I eat a lot of salmon and my Standard Poodle LOVES poached salmon. You have to be careful with timing in getting rid of the bones and or skin. I mean you don't want it sitting in the trash in 115 degree heat. Soooooo. over a couple of weeks I buried the skin when it was untimely to put it into the trash. I was puzzled when Lexie came into the house covered in soil (muzzle/feet) WHAT? Then I noticed the dug up area where I'd buried the fish. I mean it was buried about 6 inches deep. Good schnozola, that doggy.

He must have been proud of himself for finding something so valuable and so well hidden. GOOD DOG!

Using salmon skins sounds like a good plan ... if you don't have a dog who loves salmon.

I have a related problem with composting coffee grounds, tea leaves, and veggie trimmings. I tend to forget to take it into the garden until the job has become rather ... umm .... unpleasant. I once had a composter, but It worked so slowly that I lost interest before I got anything out of it. So now I throw pulled up weeds and plants into a pile in a hidden part of the garden. I've never started a compost heap using food scraps because I've thought things would get eaten by all the local fauna unless I put out well-decomposed stuff. Which brings us back to where we started.

The bears would love it if I buried salmon skin in my garden.

Yikes, Margaret! I always worried that raccoons would be after most stuff - do think there is a certain depth that they wouldn't smell fish at or is it just not a good idea? I suppose you could always stick it in a blender with other high scent stuff....

Which, BTW, is another way to get stuff to break down easily, Steve - just stick your food scraps in a blender and have a small ditch ready to receive it. And yes, the pellets can be found at any feed store - alfalfa horse feed tends to be less expensive than rabbit - larger pellets, I guess.

The good news is that I found some folks who are starting a community garden at the DBG and want the manure, hooray! I have never had to fight so hard to get rid of garbage before, lol....

About a year ago I read that if you put your veggie table scrapes in a plastic bag then into the freezer THEN Into compost it will degrade MUCH faster ... True!

Really? Huh....

It seems pretty logical to me, assuming you have the freezer space. After all, the thing that makes scraps go bad is not being refrigerated. The best solution, of course, would be a sort of trash compactor that had a special freezer bin for compost.

I think you're on to something!!!