Making plant food

I’ve been making heaps of compost to feed to the kiwifruit vines and use in the vegetable and herb garden nearby. I started by creating a structure for the pile, tying together four wooden pallets to create a box. Then I gathered some old kiwifruit prunings and chopped them up into little sticks to make up the bottom layer.

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Next I had to wander around the property with a shovel and look for horse and alpaca poop to gather into my wheelbarrow. I layered the nitrogen-rich goodness in alternating with wood chips! The recipe was one wheelbarrow of excess plant matter, two wheelbarrows of poop, followed by two of wood chips. Whenever the food scraps tin got filled up in the house we threw that on too. Finally, we stacked hay on top to keep the chickens from jumping around and digging in it. (I didn’t do the hay part because of my allergies!!)

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My nostrils are filled with the delightful aromatherapy of manure!20170207_092827 (1)

 

Once this heap finishes composting (which will take a long time) it will make a big lump of nutritious supplements to feed to the kiwi trees, perennial herbs, and vegetables in the garden.

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