User avatar
VegPlotter @vegplotter@mastodon.world
1w
As you clear your summer veg beds, don't leave them bare! Now is the time to feed your soil for next year by adding a thick layer of well-rotted manure. No need to dig it. Cover with cardboard to suppress weeds & let the winter worms work their magic, pulling the nutrients down for you.
Gardener's gloved hand using a worn garden fork to turn rich, dark compost in a blue wheelbarrow, ready for use in the garden.
1
0
0
0
User avatar
Ugly bag of mostly water, 🇨🇦 @phasorburn@phasorburn.com
1w
@vegplotter Winter worms? The ground freezes over a metre deep here.
1
0
1
0
User avatar
VegPlotter @vegplotter@mastodon.world
1w
Fair point. A metre down and you've basically got permafrost. Manure will still break down once it thaws in spring, but honestly at that depth you're fighting physics. Might be worth just leaving it sit on top under the cardboard rather than trying to work it in. What's your soil like when it does thaw, decent structure or more clay?
1
0
0
0
User avatar
Ugly bag of mostly water, 🇨🇦 @phasorburn@phasorburn.com
1w
@vegplotter Fertile for crops if you irrigate, and there's lots of cattle feedlots that get their dung hauled out to spread on the fields in the autumn after harvest. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palliser's_Triangle

For small vegetable gardens we renew the topsoil with dirt, peat, and sometimes commercially available processed and bagged cattle manure. I'm guessing since that is sold in the spring that it has already been composted appropriately.

I was more amused at the thought of winter worms doing anything other than being frozen solid for 4 months.
0
0
1
0