Monday, November 24, 2008

horse manure for the garden

horse manure pile

Someone leaves manure from their horses once a week at our community garden. All the gardeners scramble to collect this and dump it on their gardens. Today I joined in. I shoveled a wheelbarrow full and brought it to my frozen garden. I spread it out in the center. It needs to compost, but should provide good nutrients in the spring.

Only problem is Skippy. I don't know what is so exciting about horse manure to a dog. Bllaagghhhh. Oh yuck... I may need to skip the horse manure thing next time.

4 comments:

Fiona said...

This is a serious issue. Our dogs used to hike a path in Altadena that was also used for trail-riding. You just *could not* keep them out of the horse poo.

It won't hurt him, though. So that's something.

gintoino said...

Oh yeah...dogs and horse manure...My dog is crazy about it to. As fiona said it wont hurt him...its just a desgusting habit.

kathy said...

Definitely deeesgusting. I'm glad to hear its OK. It did upset Skippy's stomach.

After dumping the barrow full in the middle of my garden - where I grow food I eat - I was also concerned about the healthfulness of this for me. But after checking around, it appears there's no significant risk of horses excreting agents harmful to people. (Here's a reference with sources.)

I think though, that I'm looking forward to assembling compost bins. I'd rather dump the manure in there with the veggie waste and let it compost a season before using it in the garden. I'll have to check into this later.

Susie said...

I have never heard of that canine affinity! Weird.