Chicken manure, often called "black gold," provides one of the most nutrient-rich boosts for your soil. Different types of chicken manure exist, with variations in quality and composition. You can ...

For folks who don’t farm or garden, a malodorous pile of manure is usually a fly-attracting eyesore to be avoided. But most farmers and gardeners won’t turn up their noses at such a deposit; where ...

To make compost gather enough materials to make a pile at least three feet deep, mix the dry materials such as fallen leaves, shredded tree branches, cardboard, newspaper; hay or straw; wood shavings.

This past spring, I set out to design and maintain a sustainable garden in my backyard—and a big part of that project has involved using chickens to fertilize my soil and help process my compost pile.

Like cooking an egg, timing is everything with poultry manure, a Vermont master gardener warns this week. First-timers in the world of small-scale poultry might be tempted to shovel a week's worth of ...

Most gardeners do some composting. Some folks compost anything that once was part of a living plant, often mixing it with barnyard waste; they turn and aerate their piles and make terrific compost in ...

Using a compost starter can speed up the process.

Q: If I make my own compost, can I use it instead of commercial fertilizers for grass, plants, trees and shrubs? A: Yes, you can. But please be aware that homemade compost is not consistent in ...