Beardsley Farm is cultivating a new area of land to turn into a butterfly garden. The final dimensions of the garden will be 60’ by 70’ and the space will also include walking paths, benches and a small pond. Our first step was to till up the ground to make the soil workable. Next we needed to amend the soil by adding organic matter such as compost and manure. These additions provide essential nutrients for the plants’ health.
We contacted the Knoxville Zoo and they agreed to deliver 30 cubic yards of “Zoo doo” to the butterfly garden. The manure is from a variety of herbivorous animals such as elephants and rhinos. The amendment was delivered in a huge dump truck and the smell was unmistakable.
What do you do with 30 cubic yards of Zoo doo? Call together your best of friends to help you shovel, wheelbarrow, rake and spread the enormous steaming mass of poo into an even 4-inch layer across the cultivated surface. With nine totally dedicated and soon stinky people, it took us 3 hours to maneuver the manure. We sure did the doo that day! It took many days of air-drying or thorough washing to get the stench out of our clothing and hair.
The next step toward the completion of the butterfly garden is to till the manure into the soil and then define the paths with metal edging. The paths will then be tamped down and lined and graveled before we start planting the native flowers, shrubs and trees to attract butterflies.
1 comments:
I hope the butterfly garden will turn out to be very beautiful and many people will enjoy it!
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