The Pile of Horse Manure and What Did I Plant?

My vacation week this past week was filled with planting, weeding, seeding, mulching and riding bike and kayaking. I never seem to sit still for a moment. But the one thing I realized I spend the MOST time on when I'm in the garden, is the compost pile. I like to call it, "playing in shit" (sorry to you folks who think of sh as a dirty word). The main reason for the pile is, of course, for composting. And composting requires constant turning; thus, I'm digging in it all the time. My pile is a good mixture of well-rotted manure, and some not-so-rotted or little soiled straw. The straw was separated this week and used for mulch on the entire garden. As I planted seeds, I followed-up with a nice layer of straw mulch on each side of the planted rows. Then there's the in-between-stuff -- kinda rotted, but definitely not straw. That was separated into yet another pile, called the "waiting" section. Waiting to go on the next compost pile - or waiting to use as fertilizer somewhere - maybe as mulch around a perennial or two (currants? raspberries?). It WILL be used, just not sure where yet. And the most rotted goes straight to the compost pile. All in all, there was a bunch of time spend on the manure pile this week.

And what did I plant this week?

Butternut squash

Eggplant

Amish Paste and Early Girl tomatoes

Revolution and Nardello Peppers

Cayenne and Jalapeno Peppers

Sweet Potatoes

Sweet Corn!

Yellow Wax Beans

Green Beans

Tiger-eye dry beans

Black Beans

Cannelli Beans

Quinoa

Fennel Bulb

Rosemary

Thyme

Pineapple Sage

Golden Sage

Annual Flowers for color - celosia, scarlet sage for the hummingbirds, snapdragons, and some sunflowers. Pictures coming.

I need a cherry tomato plant yet, then I think I'm done planting for a couple weeks. Cheerio!