Still pretty busy, but look what we've accomplished!

Today was a whirlwind of activity. At 7:20 we crawled out of bed and into our work clothes for a day of errands. The first stop wast to pick up one cubic yard of topsoil from a local landscape supply shop for $21, and then back on the road to a feed store. For another $6, we got a bale of mulching hay. Then, the most exciting stop of the day:



Shoveling horse poop! My roommate happens to have a beautiful horse named Jackie, who produces tons of this every day. We shoveled three huge garbage bags full of the stuff.

Then after a brief stop at Home Depot for some peat moss, we returned home to assemble the beds.


We filled them about a two thirds full of top soil, and worked in some of the manure and peat moss. Then we topped them off with a bit of mulching hay, and watered them down really well.

We ran out of soil after the second bed, so we need to go get more on Monday.

Our next project was to create a little area for growing timothy hay for the rabbits, and to plant some corn (the other beds don't get quite enough sun).


We added a bit of manure and some peat moss, but haven't really improved the soil as much as we need to. Perhaps we'll sprinkle some compost or rabbit manure on it to improve some things.

Everything is going well here! Still tons of work, but at least we accomplished this much.

A great fertilizer

Our pet bunny, Atom, is more than just a cute face.

Isn't she adorable?

She is a poop machine. If you feed her a carrot, you can actually watch it go straight through her. She takes a bite, and out comes a perfectly round pellet of poo. I might be exaggerating, but she must drop a turd every five minutes. Lucky for us, this rabbit poo makes a great fertilizer.

I normally wind up making a "tea" from her teeny turds. I just throw them in an old Gatorade bottle, add some warm water, and let it sit for a day or two (it helps to shake it every once in a while).


Be forewarned--- things can get a little smelly. The good thing is, you can store the dry pellets in a ziploc bag until you're ready to mix it, and that doesn't smell at all.

Rabbit poop is very high in nitrogen (it has more than chicken manure). Also, it contains plenty of phosphorous, which is great for fruit formation. Try putting some of this in your corn bed before you plant, and it should work out great. Just be warned--- too much of this can easily burn young plants.