Saturday, July 24, 2010

Poo Stew

This is my first year going 100% natural in the garden. No pesticides or non-organic fertilizers. The fertilizer part has posed a bit of a problem, as I do not have my soil in good condition. I have a couple of compost bins going, but that end product won't be ready until next year. I have a Can-O-Worms worm bin with a pretty good colony established. They aren't really fast eaters but they do eventually produce some lovely rich castings. I also bought a gallon of Alaskan fish fertilizer and located a couple of local folks who raise rabbits but don't need their byproduct. I have a limited amount of worm castings. Instead of digging it into the garden I've been making worm tea and pouring it on the plants. I had been spreading the rabbit manure on top of the garden but my little dog thinks it's treats. Yesterday I got the bright(?) idea to combine all 3, the castings, manure, and fish emulsion, to make one super duper liquid fertilizer. I got 2 of my large buckets. To each I added 1 cup castings, a goodly amount of rabbit stuff, and a couple glugs of fish fertilizer. I filled the buckets with water and let them steep all day. Last night I stirred the buckets well and poured about 4 cups of the mixture into a watering can. Then filled the can with water and commenced to watering all of the garden's residents. I swear, this stuff worked immediately. The plants seem to love it. And my little dog leaves it alone. The only drawback is the horrendous smell. Fish fertilizer is some nasty stuff.

1 comment:

luvewe said...

Commenting on my own post. LOL But I wanted to point out something that a friend brought to my attention. If you use a fish fertilizer...your yard will smell like a rotten fish, and just might attract an unwelcome visitor. A raccoon, for instance. I don't want to put out the welcome mat for a raccooon, so I will no longer add fish fertilizer to the poo stew.