I buy steer manure blend at a discount store or home improvement store for less than a dollar to spread around by flower beds and lawn. I use those black weeping hoses for my watering system so the black manure compost makes my gardens look very neat and tidy. This compost is my fertilizer and mulch. It's good for the soil unlike chemical fertilizers. I also put about a cup of this steer manure in a large empty detergent bottle filled with water to water and feed my house plants.
By Linda
Note: This is an older post, so the price of the manure is not current.
It's better than chemical fertilizers and I have used it too! I have read (Ann Lovejoy) that it has salt in it, from the salt licks that they use to make the cattle thirsty so they weigh more for that last trip across the scale. I found a dairy near me that composts the manure solids, and that stuff is the finest I've found, makes a good mulch, n o odor, and very clean to use. Antibiotics and rBST don't survive through the cow let alone the composting, it's good! Every garden needs the life, the active life that comes with well-made compost, and the plants show it. There's no substitute for compost!
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For root vegetables like potatoes in new ground, you will sometimes get bugs that eat the root vegetables. Simple solution is cow manure, it kills them dead.
If you're doing some gardening this spring planting season, check with your local dairy farmers for free cow manure. It's great fertilizer. Most farmers will allow you to come and take all you want.
