Last week I spent several back breaking hours sowing seeds and planting all of my surviving transplants. My sister and brother-in-law, who had a lot of success last year with their garden (using methods gleaned from Mel and Patti), swear by including a trowel full of compost with each transplant and adding steer manure to their soil (before planting). Having done this last year myself using only plant-based compost, I can attest to the fact that adding compost while transplanting and sowing will make your plants grow all crazy big and bountiful…but I hadn’t yet tried adding steer manure. At first I thought “poop? like, from a giant mammal? ew to the ick.” Having misinterpreted my sister, I scooped that manure straight into the ground with every planting and every seed sowed. I also sprinkled it around every plant before giving it all a final water.

So now, sadly, my plants are probably all going to BURN* UP AND DIE! Why is this tragically so? Manure generates heat as it decomposes. It can even spontaneously ignite when stored in large piles. Hello!?! I already knew this and thought it a weird gardening trick even as I was packing that poop straight into the earth, and yet I stupidly, foolishly continued. All that said, please don’t be scared off from the poo. There is definitely something to be said about the manure. I wish I would have taken a before and after because my radishes are out of control huge…but they’re probably going to burst into flames and catch our fence on fire and burn down the neighborhood. Let’s enjoy the beauty while it lasts:

I planted a three sisters planting of corn, beans and squash. I also planted zucchini, cucumber, chives, garlic, broccoli, tomatoes, parsley, artichokes, oh hell, I can’t remember what else. Lots of veggies. I’m going on a recon mission later today to try to mix that manure around underground as well as above to break it up a bit. I’m crossing my fingers and am hopeful that all is not lost.

Growing food is cool, even when mistakes are made. Last year I learned these lessons, and I’m going to add “always read package instructions and dilute that poo!” into my bag of tricks as well. If you think you can’t because you only have a small space, consider square foot gardening as it allows you to grow a significant amount of food in a small space – a two by two garden box on a stoop or balcony is probably all you need. You could also grow your food in containers (that’s where all of my herbs are currently living). Here’s a spiffy little post about growing radishes that I recently stumbled upon. Happy planting!

PS – in other totally cool, yet entirely random news, yesterday I made more diy baby wipes so I figure each half roll of paper towels lasts about three weeks, so we’re spending less than a dollar per month on baby wipes. Not bad.

*Update – so the amount of steer manure in my garden isn’t actually enough to get so hot that it will literally burn from heat. That’s like, if you had a ginormously huge pile. The burn that may result in my garden will be a chemical burn. I’m paraphrasing here, but my sister explained it by likening it to vitamins. Taking one multi is good, but you would get sick and may die if you took an entire bottle.