It’s only August and the garden is already blooming with colour and life. Although most of the seeds in the vegetable patch have taken a while to germinate in the wintry weather, they’re getting there, with a good sprinkling of blood and bone followed by a big dose of our homemade liquid fertilizer, last weekend, about to give them a big boost.
We always have a few buckets of liquid manure placed in a clear, undisturbed area of the chook pen, all in different stages of maturity. They’re filled with a potent concoction of water and chook manure, which we continually dispose of into the newest bucket in the cycle as it arrives.
This is not only a good way of getting essentially free fertilizer for your garden, but also a way of keeping your chook pen clean and in turn minimising bad odours. The water works in a similar way to how many humans use water in their toilets - putting the manure in to water not only helps the smell dissipate somewhat (at least temporarily) but also helps the manure soften and break down quicker, making it a fantastic instant plant food once it has matured (you’ll literally notice the effects of it almost straight away).
After a couple of months the brew has aged enough to not burn or kill your plants, and is ready to use.
Simply fill 1/3 of a large watering can or bucket with the chook poo brew, and 2/3 with water. This can be applied liberally to all areas of the garden, particularly the vegetable patch and ornamental’s.
You’ll find that after you’ve poured most of the watery stuff from the top of your brew bucket(s), that a thick sludge will remain in the bottom. To get the most out of this glorious goo, fill the brew-bucket with water again, give it a stir, and again dispense 1/3 into a separate watering can or bucket, and top up that up water. Repeat for as long as you need or want to. We find that one bucket of brew can be diluted about 7-8 times before we either a) start getting tired! or b) can’t get much more goo out of it.
That said, we find that even after all the dilutions, some sludge always remains at the bottom, along with some leaves, straw, and anything else that has been unintentionally scooped in to the buckets when the manure has been added. Rather than discard this, we scoop this with a trowel and put it around the base of our fruit trees, followed by a good watering in. You could also put it around shrubs or ornamental trees if you think they need a boost.
Hope all that is easy enough to follow, and happy poo-brewing!
Does this brew affect natives in any way, as my ornimentals are planted in with my natives. Cheers Anita
Hi Anita,
According to Sophie from Gardening Australia:
“Natives don’t like manufactured or chemical based fertilisers that are high in phosphorous. But they do like to be fed, ideally in spring and autumn, either with a specifically designed Australian native plant food or an organic based fertiliser such as blood and bone or pelletised chicken manure.”
Well aged liquid chook manure is similarly organic, so I personally don’t see a problem. If I recall correctly, it’s generally quite high in nitrogen (encouraging leafy growth) and relatively low in phospherous. But I’m no expert. I have on occasion fertilized natives with this before and nothing died! If you are worried perhaps just use a very weak tea-coloured dilution of the brew. Perhaps at first put it on just a couple of your natives to test their response?
As far as I can tell, though, as long as the brew has been aged for long enough you should be pretty safe. We’ve never killed anything with it so far - in fact, the opposite has been the case!
Good luck!