
Remember--a little science here--soil is made up of organic (living) and inorgnaic (non-living) substances. The inorganic substances are usually broken down by the organic substances. The inorgnaic substances are the most important for your plants in that these are the substances that your plants are going to use to take in nutrients that they need to produce more and bigger flowers and fruit. Without good inorganic and organic material, your garden will flounder and not produce like it should.
So how do you know if you have the organic and inorganic material in your garden soil? Get a soil sample! I cannot stress how important this is! Our Cooperative Extension Service will take a soil sample, for a small fee, and do an analysis that will tell you exactly what you have and what you need to do to get the optimum preformance from your plants. This will help you to get your garden off to a great start.

But if you are using manure (aka, poop), it doesn't come with fertilizer analysis, so how do you know what you are putting on your garden will not "burn" or kill your plants? You can't! Sorry! So you have to be careful. Try to not use "fresh" manure. Use manure that has been sitting for a while. The ammonia needs to be broken down into ammonia nitrate that the plant can use. Also if the ammonia is broken down, you don't have as much smell. If you can plow (mix in) in the manure as much as possible, you can reduce the "burn" effect on your plants. Be careful not to have too much manure in one spot--get it spread out as much as possible. This too will help in reducing burn.
The added benefit of using manure is that it acts like composting. Manure that you get from horse or cow barns is never just poop! It will be mixed with straw, hay, and feed. All these are biodegradable and work to help build up your soil like composting does. A draw back of manure is that it has feed in it. Livestock is usually feed grain products. Just like you and me, they don't digest everything they eat. The seeds of the grains will sometimes make it into your garden and will become weeds in your garden. That's where mulching comes in handy. (I'll talk about mulching later--stay tuned!)
As I said earlier, I am a realest. Manure is great to build up the nutrient content of your garden soil, but by the end of the growing season you may need to give your garden a boost. This is where a commerical fertilizer can help. I totally suggest a liquid fertilizer that you can mix with your normal watering. It will get in faster and most will make it directly into the plant by means of the roots and leaves. You can use a gradulated fertilizer (e.i. Osmocote) but you have to remember that this type of fertilizer releases not only when it gets wet, but in high heat. So in hot weather, this fertilizer will not last the three months they say it will. (Stay tuned--I have a post coming on what formulation of fertilizer is best for what crops.)

Share you ideas or those things that have worked for you here by posting a comment. If you have questions about what I've posted, leave a comment and I'll get back to you too!!
Let's get Playing in the Dirt!!
P.S. The next day after I posted this, we got an awesome delivery--a truck load of chicken poop! I cannot wait to get it plowed in the garden and start planting! I'll keep you updated on the poops effectiveness...
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