Don't throw out your offal!

[alforddm]

As many of you know, I have a ragweed patch. Last year, as an experiment, instead of just dumping my guts and any heads or furs I didn't want to keep, I buried them. We have sandy soil over a layer of deep sandy clay. Nutrients in the soils readily wash away.

Can you tell where I buried the offal?

It should be buried at least 12" preferably 18" deep. Keeping the area moist seems to keep my dogs from smelling it and digging it up. I'm trying to decide if I want to try this directly in the garden, or buy a couple of 50gal drums and fill them with the offal and shavings or sawdust...

 

[MaggieJ]

Wow, what a difference in growth! Good tip, Alforddm. Clean disposal and great fertilizer.

 

[alforddm]

I kinda wish I had planted pumpkins in those spots this year. Now I just have to figure out how to cleanly move it into my garden.

 

[michaels4gardens]

Seminole pumpkin was my favorite variety of squash when I lived in florida, we used the immature fruit for summer squash, and the mature fruit would keep until late summer the following year... I started by burying a wheelbarrow of offal about 18 inches below the soil level in the fall , then in the spring adding some more soil over top [as it sinks down as it rots, ] then planting a hill of squash over top of that-- they grow faster than anything I have ever seen...

 

[akane]

Throwing it out when I had land meant putting on or under the dirt. Why would you haul organics off your property if you don't need to? :lol:

 

[GBov]

My great grandmother NEVER planted anything without first burying a large fish head or pile of offal first and she fed a family of 6 out of a small yard. It WORKS!

And yes, you can bury them right into the veg garden, nice and deep.

I have even read about burying lengths of fresh tree trunks, as they break down they release both water and nutrients but I have not yet tried that.

The dead bodies? My backyard is a charnel house! :lol:

 

[guardianoasis]

As many of you know, I have a ragweed patch. Last year, as an experiment, instead of just dumping my guts and any heads or furs I didn't want to keep, I buried them. We have sandy soil over a layer of deep sandy clay. Nutrients in the soils readily wash away.

Can you tell where I buried the offal?

It should be buried at least 12" preferably 18" deep. Keeping the area moist seems to keep my dogs from smelling it and digging it up. I'm trying to decide if I want to try this directly in the garden, or buy a couple of 50gal drums and fill them with the offal and shavings or sawdust...

So I was wondering.... (bolded area)

Somewhere in the forum I was asking about sawdust shavings for rabbit trays. Could you mix those shavings with the offal in a 50 gallon drum? If you did what do you think would be a good ratio?

 

[Shea]

It should be about the same as when mixing compost. Not sure what it is though.

 

[alforddm]

I was planning on starting with a layer 1-2ft deep of shavings or sawdust and put the offal on top and then about 1/2 the layer again. Then if it got gooey, add more. My gut feeling is that it needs to be moist but not runny. Having worked with dermestid beetles I can testify to things getting very liquid as they break down. Not a good thing

 

[GBov]

I put a layer of 4 inches of pine pellet bedding (sometimes shavings if I have them), skulls on that and cover with about the same amount and water really well. My container has no bottom and I put a wire cover over it.

Every now and then I get a whiff of carion smell but not strong and certainly not enough to alert a neighbor to what I am doing. :twisted: If we had them anymore, that is.

I just dug through it all to fish out the skulls from Feb, I think it was, and there is no smell and the shavings/dust are ready to go onto the veg beds or to have more heads put in.

It should work for offal as well with extra shavings but I think burying them would be easier.