We keep hearing that the best thing any gardener can do is to bring in a load of cow manure, rot it down into compost, get it on the garden and work it into the soil. But this means handling it and we shouldn’t forget that we’re handling faeces. If you don’t know it, you
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There are plenty of people who will tell you that spreading fresh cow manure in the garden will make everything grow. They are right, it will. You will hear about how it will improve the soil structure. The microorganisms will benefit from the vast range of nutrients that cow manure contains. You only have to
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Having spent many years involved in front-line agriculture and focused mainly on handling cattle, I’m well placed to offer a few ideas about how to make the best use of cow manure.  The first thing that needs to be mentioned is that cow manure is extremely valuable to the farmer who farms the land where
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Most items that we buy, these days will either be in a cardboard box or there will be an element of cardboard packaging in there somewhere. Modern graphics and printing technology often dresses up cardboard to like  something special. We can sometimes be left wondering if it’s cardboard or plastic. If you are minded to
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Somehow, we all collect cardboard boxes. Some more than others. We take out the contents and put the box to one side. We may need to hold on to it for a while, just in case the precious contents have to be sent back under warranty. Cardboard, to most people, is seen as rubbish. The
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I can remember when I was a child, receiving a much valued item that came in a cardboard box. The contents would be taken out, with great care and would be the focus of my attention. There was a limit to the attention that the contents would have because, sooner or later, for some unexplainable
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The traditional way of growing potatoes usually involved digging a patch of ground and working up the finest tilth that you can get. Light, easy-to-handle soil was, and still is, favoured for growing potatoes.  Heavy clay-soil is not so easy for growing potatoes because it’s harder work to move it around and break down into
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You’ve just eaten an apple and, as usual, you’re left delicately holding the core. You’ve taken every care to nibble away ever part that you can get at. An art in itself. That firm fruit from nature’s garden has now been reduced to that bit in the middle, the apple core. So, what are you
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Flowers in full bloom brighten the world for everyone. There’s something about colours that lift us, even if it’s just for a moment. The scent, if there is any, is a bonus. But flowers never last long enough. When they’ve lost it, they have to go. Then, comes the downside of having cut-flowers, when they
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  I can remember a time when a group of blokes would go on a ‘Stag do’ and because they had nothing sensible to talk about, the focus of attention would fall onto beer. They would drink it by the bucket full. Not a drop would be wasted. Then, there would be the ‘bragging rights’
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