Today we cleaned out the barn of our neighbor, James. He has 5 horses and 3 mules (who used to range on our property as well, until last December). We filled the entire truck bed with manure and hay, then we took it over to our new garden beds and shoveled it in. We made a third bed, this time without the cardboard layer on top of the grass. Since the layer of manure/compost is so thick, we figured that would smother out the grass eventually. We still put cardboard in the pathways and under the sides of the beds a little ways, as well as on top of the whole pile.
The first picture is Elvis (left) and Lady, with cockleburs in their forelocks. The second picture shows the three garden beds. The closest one is finished and covered with cardboard, the middle one has the manure piled in (about 10 inches thick), and the far one has just been started. The last picture is my helper/poop scooper.
