"Landfill" or Was That "Land Phil"?

No, pretty sure that was “Landfill”,  Imac’s choice for this week’s header challenge theme, so no pictures of Phil on his land (Land Phil) but now you are reminded of why Phil is called Dirt, you know…”Fill Dirt Wanted”.

This then would be my pictorial representation of “Landfill” from the farm perspective.  I have no idea if landfills exist in England (where Imac lives) like they do in America, Washington state to be exact, but they are not necessarily my favorite sort of thing, perhaps necessary, rather debatable an controversial and I would rather “fill” my head with positive things today rather than flirt with the negative. 

So here we are, Vicktory Farm & Gardens main crew, filling the land with humussy nitrogeny minerally goodness.  Just in time for fall planting.

The sheep manure you see in this bucket came from the protected area, an awning covered and chainlinked enclosure, where the ewe’s and lambs have been spending their nights since lambing ended (back in March).  Now all the lambs are big and strong and nearly the size of their mothers so no longer in need of protection from the coyotes, cougars, neighbor dogs and early morning bald eagles.  And the Market Garden is in need of some lovely manure for the onion, garlic and strawberry beds.  And since the onions go in this week and the garlic and berries shortly after a cram-packed September, today (and yesterday), moving poo is what we do.

The manure will “fill” the “land” with many good things, carbonaceous material, nitrogen, phosphate, calcium, sulfur just to name a few and the ones our soils need the most.  Sheep manure isn’t as good as chicken, a third of the mentioned nutrients actually, but it is what I’ve got right now and once tilled in later today I can plant onion seeds much sooner than if I put on this much chicken manure. 

Those lovely rich things in the poo will not only fill the land and feed the plant life that we will purpose to grow, it will also bring in and feed the little animals, microscopically little most of them, and fungi and bacteria, the good ones.  And those little buggers in the soil will then in turn aid and feed the plants as well.  Some of them will actually help deliver the minerals in the manure to the plants’ roots.

Well my time inside is well over, hope you enjoyed my “Landfilling” experience I had for you today.  Go see what my fellow Challengers have for Mac’s theme.

Here’s a little manure chart for you, iffin’ you’re interested: The numbers under the nutrient express the pounds of nutrient in a ton of manure.