Category Archives: gardening

Blooming bush

I love perennials. They come back every year, well mostly. Some just don’t work for me. I can’t get daisies to grow in my garden, yet they grow wild in our ditches. Daffodils never return to bloom for me no matter what I do, same with alliums. Good thing I do have others that don’t hate me.

It looked like my grandmother had alliums in her flower garden. She never told her neighbors what she grew. Of course, she told me. The big round heads were onions gone to seed.

This week my bridal wreath is blooming. Last year it didn’t do so well. Half of it seemed to be dead. This year it is full–I have to look close to see any of last years deadwood.

Bridal-wreath closeup eliminates any view of weeds.

Too bad it won’t bloom all summer long. Since it won’t, I will appreciate its beauty now.

Tom Sawyer revisited

If you are a gardener you might be thinking of taking a trip over to Sunnybook Farm for some free chicken fertilizer–be prepared to shovel your own.

Bridget with two buckets of fertilizer gold, well gray.


There’s more to share. Chicken manure has a lot of nitrogen so it brings out the green of plants–not the blooms–bring containers if you have them otherwise I have a few more buckets to share, too.

I heard from another gardener who wants to give me a hand cleaning out the chicken house and taking some of this treasure home. Maybe they will drop by later today.

You can’t beat this deal–free fertilizer. It’s definitely a win-win opportunity. For me, it’s a big win.

FREE fertilizer!

This is an honest offer. Come to our farm with a bucket or bag and you can have free fertilizer. Many should jump at this offer, at least I hope so.

The free fertilizer is actually chicken manure. It is dry chicken manure, but there is a catch. You have to shovel your own…out of the chicken house.

Some country people would not flinch at this work, especially if they have need of good manure.

Since we only have 8 chickens, the amount in the chicken house has composted over the last six months–I really should clean it out more often. It really doesn’t smell…really.

The chickens do not add too much fresh to the mix. These days they mostly make their deposits around the farmyard, just ask Sunny where. He searches the ‘chicken treats’ out and eats them!

I have used some of the chicken manure in my flower beds, but there’s still a lot left.

Dry chicken manure going into flower bed
My raised bed is a holey water trough.

So if you are in need of a high nitrogen, natural fertilizer contact me. I’ll even give you a bucket to take your share home.

I am not Tom Sawyer trying to get you to paint a fence, but this can be fun. Also, you get to take home homegrown fertilizer for FREE.

Copyright © 2019 Susan Manzke, All rights reserved