Manure is one of the important elements in gardening. During the years the vegetables drain our soil of minerals which they need for good growth and our soil can become poor giving us poorly grown plants and each year fewer fruits.
There are many types of manure a gardener can use like green manure, farmyard manure, or compost manure. Each of them gives a different nutrient boost and water holding capacity so we should choose which type of manure to use based on our garden type, our wishes, and needs.

Over the past 20 years, I’ve used only rabbit manure mixed with some vegetable leftovers. Rabbit manure was one the best ones for us because my dad used to breed bunnies and of course, this meant we always had it at home. Also, it doesn’t stink and can be used almost immediately with no need to wait a couple of years. I’ve always used the manure collected over the year in the next season. Also, if left for a year it can be placed directly under the roots without any worry of burning.

But as time went by it became a struggle to keep them. My dad couldn’t scythe the grass and prepare the hay for them anymore and I can’t do this on my own so we stopped breeding bunnies and we were left with a couple of old bunnies that we had as pets until they died of old age. Last year the last two bunnies went away and we had no more bunny manure coming our way. I still have some manure leftover from last year, but not as nearly enough as I should so this year I decided to buy some pelleted manure.

I was thinking about buying chicken pelleted manure, but in the end, after consulting with our agricultural pharmacy I went for the organic cow and horse manure mix.

Since I haven’t really used it before I had no idea what to expect or how much I needed so I just asked the pharmacist to give me the amount I need for a garden of 400m2 and he gave me 100kg. I decided not to use the whole amount right away but I saved 25kg to place under my seedlings right before the transplanting. I used to fill the holes with manure and eggshells and then place my seedlings so I will do the same with the pelleted manure.

The biggest issue with pelted manure for me is that it comes in bags of 25kg, which is impossible for me to take to the garden. So I had to spread it taking smaller amounts in the buckets. Up and down the garden many times. In the end, I probably went 200 times up and down the garden to spread 3 bags of manure. I can say that this is a good exercise because I couldn’t feel my legs after. 
I left one bed without manure and I’ll sow my carrots and parsley there because they don’t like freshly manured soil.

I was planning on leaving the beds that will be planted in May without digging them, but in the end, I decided to dig the whole garden to mix the manure with the soil because it kinda started to smell once the amount of spread manure started growing.

It took me 3 days to dig everything. The soil is unbelievably dry, even on the side which is always wet. The wet side can be dag but it requires hard digging while the sunny side is like concrete. The upper part of the soil even formed a crust which usually doesn’t happen before August. 

Temperatures are unusually high right now, jumping to 22°C in the shade so it has been a really tough job to do, especially because my body is still not used to this kind of temperature and I get tired really easily. 
Another thing is that my skin is starting to react to heat and sweat so I’m already breaking in hives and itchy pimples and it’s not even April. The best proof of how weird our weather is that the mosquitoes are still alive and together with horse flies jumped to chase me around the garden. Seriously, I can remember a single year when mosquitoes survived the winter. Ordinary flies are also already flying around and starting to annoy us so I had to dig the garden fast so the manure wouldn’t attract them. 
Still, after 4 days I’ve finished with the pelleted manure and now I’m waiting for proper rain and a 2 week waiting period to be over to start sowing.