Garden

[Biftu]

My friends garden looks fabulous.  I asked her for secrets and she says she feeds her garden twice a year but that what really works is cow manure.  Has anyone used it?

[ValuSkr]

Presumably your friend is using composted cow manure, not the raw stuff.  Fresh manure would burn or dehydrate plants.  Composted cow manure is fine, but I've never used it or had a source.

[Nightowlz]

DH has used it to make some kind of tea with it to use in the garden.

He also has a compost pile

[Biftu]

She said she buys it at Home Depot.

[PA Mom-mom]

@Biftu  We always turned in composted cow manure to our vegetable garden. As @ValuSkr  stated, make sure it isn't fresh. It must be composted. The only downside might be any kind of seeds in the manure that survive the composting. Oh, and the smell.

[Another new name Sue]

Once years ago bagged cow manure burned our roses.  Too much was applied, so be careful.  In the fall here, lots of people apply it to their lawns (Calif.).

[bigtraps]

Cow Manure Tea is the bomb.  You plants will go crazy when you feed them that.

[Biftu]

How do you make cow manure tea?  I'm definitely going to give it a try.  Don't know about the smell, but during these times I have plenty of masks to wear!

[Scooby Doo]

If it's already been bagged it's safe to use and not too hot for composting.  I buy the stuff at Home Depot.  I also use chicken manure from HD.  Dried poultry manure is two to three times as rich as cow manure in inorganic fertilizer content. Poultry droppings are better manure than cow dung (or other farmyard manure) in nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium content.  Depends on which kind of plants you have.

[Harpa]

Novice gardner that I was back then....

Not cow, but horse, since my sister kept horses. I made sure it was old -- composted -- but that year I had an atrocious amount of weeds in my garden.

Other than the weeds, the vegetables & flowers did beyond great!

The following year I made tea -- took cotton material and bagged the manure inside. Just tied it with string and then plunged it in buckets of water. Just a lot of work, since my garden was 50 feet long.