Sheep manure and seedlings

It’s been a really wet, cold week. We’ve had snow on the hills around us! Today was glorious – about 20°C and not much wind. My walking buddy offered me some sheep manure that had been dug out from under the shearing shed – I jumped at it! She helped me load it onto the back of our truck and unloaded it onto a tarpaulin when I got home. I folded the tarp over the top like an envelope so that no rain can get into the manure.

Truck load of sheep manure
Unloaded onto tarp
Covered until used and a wagon load to take to the vegetable garden

I took advantage of the weather and planted out some of the seedlings – all of the beans, celery and silver beet (chard). For each seedling, I dug a hole and mixed a good handful of sheep manure into the soil before planting.

Beans are ready to plant
All planted (front corner = pean)
Planting schematic

I also top-dressed the garlic patch by pouring a few hands full of manure onto the pea straw between rows and then shaking it into the pea straw and onto the soil.