Special “tea”

This post is not for the faint at heart. Call me crazy or "gone off the deep end", but I see my methods as simple common sense for keeping the best urban homestead possible. Gardening is not just chic these days, it is becoming almost a necessity for those of us striving to best nourish our families. Foods come from far and wide, often without their peek nutrient profile either due to early picking or exhaustive travel. Then there are the fantastic benefits of just growing food for ourselves; the loveliness of being outside soaking in the rays and witnessing where foods actually come from.

Organic liquid fertilizer, or the “funer” (I love that non-word description), manure tea (ewweewwww) is so good for gardens (plants in general). We have all heard about using manure on gardens; the advantage of manure tea is you can use it on your plants much more quickly than you can compost it. Manure tea has numerous benefits for the garden; two biggies are:

1. Nitrogen. This special tea is a concentrated source of nitrogen, the prime nutrient in the formation of healthy leaves and foliage. On the other hand, too much can burn leaves and roots. But the great thing is, manure tea can be easily diluted. For this year, my plan is to dump the whole lot on our four raised beds about three or four weeks before we plant and be done with it. I suppose I could “brew” another batch at some point in the growing season, but right now I am not looking that far ahead.

2. Soil nutrients. Manure tea enriches the soil and continues to decompose, leaving the garden richer and the foods from it more nutrient dense. It does all this without damaging the present environment of worms or other natural inhabitants of the garden too, unlike inorganic fertilizers. While surfing for some info on the subject, I found this fun quote, “It becomes a healthy part of the garden cycle, giving benefits that will carry through from year to year without creating conditions that will lead to an imbalance in the natural health that every gardener tries to build into their soil. Any plants that live in that garden, now or later, can only thrive and shine in that kind of environment.”

Sounds pretty cool huh? Now, for the gross part. Pooh is gross, no matter how you look at it. However, after 4 dogs and 2 kids, I suppose I am a little desensitized. I found a bag of organic alpaca and rabbit manure at the Urban Homesteader Market a few weeks back and finally got my tea “brewing” this past weekend.

Directions: Any large container will do, from a 5 gallon bucket to 55 gallon drum. Fill a pillow case or cotton sack/cheese cloth loosely with the manure. Fill the container with water. Lift and dunk the “tea bag” every day. Aeration is important to the processes of making compost tea. After a week, your tea is ready to use. Slowly remove your tea bag, add enough water to the tea mixture to resemble a glass of drinking tea (even more if using on seedlings). You may use a sprayer or scoop out and fertilize plants individually.

Here it is, my manure tea….I used a trash can and an old pillow case tied to a rope. It looks almost done. I will dump it on the gardens next weekend. I am getting excited, I have some seedlings in the sunroom – lemon cucumbers, tomatoes, purple beans, zucchini (green and golden), kale and spinach. It is almost doesn’t even feel like Spring unless these little guys are growing….I can’t wait to see how everything thrives! Happy gardening!