seasons about over. raised bed - what do you do?

[TightenUp]

Originally Posted by lakelady

Jeff, there are lots of little egg farms around here, if you find one you can usually get chicken manure from them (cheap if not free). Good for adding in Fall, but not for Spring as it's pretty hot stuff (lol, literally). There's stables around the corner from my house and I've thought about approaching them for some manure I'm just not sure how I'd get it to my house since my car is a Jeep and I don't really want the manure sitting in the back, no trunk.

great idea!! i know of a place to get eggs about 45 minutes away. i've been looking for a reason to drive out to the farms for some veggies i dont grow. i've already asked the farms for some manure and they wont sell it to me but i bet the chicken place will

a good thing to transport manure are the rubber maid totes that everyone uses for SWCs. i have 18 gallon ones which i used for rabbit manure one time. i guess i can always get more rabbit poop too.

thanks for the idea

[lakelady]

sure, no problem. There's a small chicken farm in West Milford (several actually) so I ran up there last time and it was very cheap. Worked great to make compost with all the shredded leaves and coffee grinds, etc. Had the most productive year for tomatoes ever.

The rubbermaid totes are a GREAT IDEA! Thanks! I had no idea how I would have gotten stinky manure home in bags in the back of a jeep lol....windows open all the way otherwise !

[TightenUp]

i drove into farmland this morning to grab some blueberry preserves for a gift for my aunt(she tryed them and loved them this summer). anyway the blueberry farm has a few animals so i asked for some manure which they declined saying they use it all. while walking out the door a guy tells me about a place 2 minutes up the road which has a sign "free horse manure" hanging by his driveway.

i took the 2 minute drive and found the mother load. i filled up two 18 gallon totes(all i had) and just spread over the raised bed. it was just enough to get a thin layer over the entire bed.

next spring i will prob use ami's method of just adding some compost on top and letting her go for a few weeks before planting

now for the hard part....waiting all fall and winter for my seed starting date.

[Baizanator]

Just tilled compost into mine on Saturday. I'll be covering it with straw, which I will till in in December in preparation for spring planting.

[TightenUp]

Originally Posted by Baizanator

Just tilled compost into mine on Saturday. I'll be covering it with straw, which I will till in in December in preparation for spring planting.

whats your typical plant out date?

[Baizanator]

Originally Posted by TightenUp

whats your typical plant out date?

We usually plant out in early March so, after I till in my straw, I'll cover with a synthetic weed barrier.