Poo Ramble

Yes, as promised, the poo ramble.

What is it about gardeners, and other folk of a rural and/or agricultural bent, that makes us so fascinated with manure?

On Thursday, I loaded the small people into the Disco, with a packed lunch, and set off for the allotments. There, I borrowed a dinky little trailer from Bob (I have found that there is always a Bob or a John or a George at allotments, that have anything you could possibly wish for, and they'll always be happy to lend it to you if you stay and chat a while).

The trailer was so small I didn't even bother with a light board or number plate on it - you could see both on the back of my truck quite clearly. In fact, I couldn't even see the trailer in my wing mirrors when driving. The only things that stopped me from wondering if the thing had bounced off into the hedgerow were the two bits of box-section steel tubing sticking up from the two front corners. And boy, did they bounce.

A few miles down the road, opposite Lou's house is a field that's had horses on for 7 years. Do you have any idea of the amount of poo 4 horses can generate in 7 years? :) And during the past 7 years, all the straw from the stable and droppings that had been poop-scooped from the field had been piled in a corner and left to get on with whatever it is that manure does when you're not looking.

And what it does is turn itself into the most lovely dark brown crumbly soil improver and grower-of-maginificent-vegetables you ever did see. First, I handed out the packed lunches to the offspring strapped in the back of the truck (there was no way I was letting my three out in a field with a stack of manure that high!). Once they were contentedly munching, I three quarters filled that little trailer. I really couldn't dig much more out that day, as my back was starting to give. Lou, bless her, had brought me out a cup of tea half way through, so we returned the cup, had a chat and I got her recipe for the most divine museli-rice crispie-date & honey flapjack every.

Then back at the lottie, I emptied the trailer into the manure box in the corner that every plot seems to have. And do you know, that 3/4 filled trailer just about filled the box to the top.

Well, of course, I knew it would. :)