Spreading manure on our big garden! | Home & Garden

This weekend we spread manure on our large vegetable garden.  We're doing this now in the early winter because we want to give this fairly fresh cow manure time to rot in the ground.  This manure will add valuable organic matter and nutrients back into the soil.  We are spreading it in rows right where the crops were because we plan to use the same rows next year for new crops.  After we spread it we dig it in with a fork to ensure that it stays put and does not wash away in the winter rains.  We got this manure from a local farmer who lives just a few miles from us.  I would say in all we got about four yards total and we spread this over the two gardens in nine rows that are each about 50 feet long.  After this we will layer leaves on top of these rows to act as another layer of both protection and organic matter.