We have harvested the last of the turnips and kales to make room for the peas.
If the weather permits they should be planted by Saint Valentine’s Day. In preparation, we are dunging the ground as peas thrive best in a deep fertile soil and it is at this time of year that one has the opportunity to enrich the soil before the rush of spring arrives.
The proper manure is well aged horse dung that has been mixed with vegetable matter. English authors are particular about the attributes of various manures. Samuel Cooke, for example, made these distinctions in 1780: “Horse-dung best suits cold soils, and cow-dung the loose burning ones; sheep-dung suits most soil. … Hogs-dung was formerly rejected from the notion of it producing weeds, but it is now found to be perhaps the richest and fattest of any we have … a little of it suffices. Fowls and pigeons, living principally upon grain, dung makes a very warm manure but cannot well be obtained in large quantities.”
Screening dung, Le jardinière solitaire, François Gentil, 1706
Modern gardeners also recognize the value of animal manure for fertility and building the organic matter in the soil but some caution is in order.
Fresh manure must never be used in the garden. Unseasoned horse dung is full of weed seeds and potentially harmful organisms. Six months is a sufficient time to age the dung providing it has attained the proper heat of 160 degrees. This insures that the weed seeds and microorganisms have been eradicated.
Digging in the dung
We prefer to age our dung for 10 to 12 months. By this time it has been transformed to a rich, dark material that holds both nutrients and moisture for the better growth of vegetables.
The dung is first thrown through a screen to remove those coarse particles that have not fully decomposed. This is a somewhat onerous, though long held practice, that produces the finest compost.
It is then spread on the garden approximately four inches deep and turned in to a spades depth. We prefer to lay the soil up rough so that it will quickly drain should rain ensue before the peas are sown.
When we are ready to plant the ground is raked smooth and the rows laid out with a string line.
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