Manure (farmyard manure, compost, plant manure)

Manure is organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are trapped by bacteria in the soil.

There are three main classes of manures used in soil management:

Animal manures

Most animal manure is feces. Common forms of animal manure include farmyard manure (FYM) or farm slurry (liquid manure). FYM also contains plant material (often straw), which has been used as bedding for animals and has absorbed the feces and urine. Agricultural manure in liquid form, known as slurry, is produced by more intensive livestock rearing systems where concrete or slats are used, instead of straw bedding. Manure from different animals has different qualities and requires different application rates when used as fertilizer. For example horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens,turkeys, rabbits, humans (sewage), and guano from seabirds and bats all have different properties. For instance, sheep manure is high in nitrogen and potash, while pig manure is relatively low in both. Horses mainly eat grass and a few weeds so horse manure can contain grass and weed seeds, as horses do not digest seeds the way that cattle do. Chicken litter, coming from a bird, is very concentrated in nitrogen and protein and is prized for both properties.

Animal manures may be adulterated or contaminated with other animal products, such as wool (shoddy and other hair), feathers, blood, and bone. Livestock feed can be mixed with the manure due to spillage. For example, chickens are often fed meat and bone meal, an animal product, which can end up becoming mixed with chicken litter.

Compost

Compost is the decomposed remnants of organic materials – usually of plant origin, but often including some animal dung or bedding.

Plant manures

Green manures are crops grown for the express purpose of plowing them in, thus increasing fertility through the incorporation of nutrients and organic matter into the soil. Leguminous plants such as clover are often used for this, as they fix nitrogen using Rhizobia bacteria in specialized nodes in the root structure.

Other types of plant matter used as manure include the contents of the rumens of slaughtered ruminants, spent hops (left over from brewing beer) and seaweed.

Crop rotation

If we have a garden of a certain size we would be able to establish a crop rotation system that will help to fight the pests and to improve the use of nutrients by different groups of plants.

If we have enough space to organize 5 beds, we will establish a 4 year rotation.

1. Legumes: They are good nitrogen fixes. They do not like fresh lime
2. Brassicas: They are heave nitrogen user. They do not like lime
3. Alliums: They have shallow roots. If they grow in the same area for more than two years the fungi white-rot will appear and ruin the crop
4. Root/tubers: They are heavy fresh manure users (high potasium and sodium). They have deep roots (potatoes, tomatoes... never plant potatoes and tomatoes together as they will spread a disease from on to the other)
5. Permanent crops (crops that will not rotate every year) 

• Artichoke
• Rhubarb
• Aspharagus
• Strawberries
• Currants
• Apple... 

 In our rotation plan we have to consider rotating also between the indoor and outdoor crops.

Flowering plants

They are divided into 250 groups. In each of the groups there are plants that are edible and some that are poisonous. Each group has similar flowers. Each of the groups would also have specific diseases that is why the crop rotation is needed, so diseases do not get used to the plants of that group.

The most important families are:

• Brassicas (they have buds;  cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussel sprouts...)
• Legumes-Fabaceae or Leguminosae (they have a pod that contains seeds;  alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, soybeans, peanuts...)
• Apiaceae (carrot family, root crops; angelica, anise, arracacha, asafoetida, caraway, carrot, celery, Centella asiatica, chervil, cicely, coriander/cilantro, cumin, dill..)
• Curcurbit-Cucurbitaceae (cucumber family;  cucumber, pumpkins, luffas, and watermelons...)
• Solanum (Most parts of the plants, especially the green parts and unripe fruit, are poisonous to humans (although not necessarily to other animals), but many species in the genus bear some edible parts, such as fruits, leaves, or tubers. Several species are cultivated, including three globally important food crops:

1. Tomato, S. lycopersicum (they do not grow tubers ant the tomatoes are edible)
2. Potato, S. tuberosum (the tomatoe/berries that grow in the potato plant are poisonous)
3. Eggplant, S. melongena (the tomatoes (aubergines i.e.) are edible)

• Rosaceae (rose family, the seeds look quite similar in all of them;  apples, apricots, plums, cherries, peaches, pears,raspberries, strawberries, rose...)
• Polygonaceae (leaves are somehow triangular, the seeds are pyramidal; rhubarb, buckwheat, sorrels, ...)
• Asteraceae - Thistle (aster means star in greek, its name its related to the inflorescence star form; daisies, fleabane, chrysanthemums, dahlias, zinnias, globe artichoke, sowthistle, hawkweed, dandelion...)
• Amaryllidaceae - Allium (bulbous flowering plant; onion, garlic, leeks, tulips, lily, ....)
• Poaceae/Gramineae (grass family; wheat, ryegrass, oats, bamboos, thatch, ...)
• Rubiaceae (coffee family; coffee, quinine, ...)

Groups of plants

Moss & Liquens	Ferns	Conifers	Flowering plants
Non woody. First plants to colonize Earth. An area where there are moss & lichens it is a clean area. The least moss and liquens there are, the most polluted its the area.	They reproduce by spores. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem (making them vascular plants). They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants. Ferns reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers.	Plants that produce cones. They tolerate cold thanks to the resine. Pinophytes are gymnosperms. They are cone-bearing seed plants with vascular tissue; all extant conifers are woody plants, the great majority being trees with just a few being shrubs.	They propagate by flowers. They evolved when insects appeared. They were the last group to appear in Earth.

Oaks

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus, of which about 600 species exist.  The genus is native to the Northern Hemisphere, and includes deciduous and evergreen species extending from cool temperate to tropical latitudes in Asia and the Americas.

Oaks have spirally arranged leaves, with lobed margins in many species; some have serrated leaves or entire leaves with smooth margins. Many deciduous species are marcescent, not dropping dead leaves until spring. The flowers are catkins, produced in spring. The fruit is a nut called an acorn, borne in a cup-like structure known as a cupule; each acorn contains one seed (rarely two or three) and takes 6–18 months to mature, depending on species.

In Ireland the most common oaks are:

Sessile - Quercus Petraea

Peduncular Oak (Irish) - Quercus robus

The oaks are one of the most valuable biodiversity plants. They can support over 300 species of wild life (insects and birds mainly).

Pines can also support a handful.

Ash - Fraxinus

Latin plant name Fraxinus Common plant name Ash (fresno) Plant type Tree Size (meters) <10-45 m Distinguishing features Both names, Latin and English, have the same meaning, spear. The leaves are opposite (rarely in whorls of three), and mostly pinnately compound, simple in a few species. The seeds, popularly known as keys or helicopter seeds, are a type of fruit known as a samara. Ash is a hardwood. Extensively used for making bows, tool handles, baseball bats, hurleys and other uses demanding high strength and resilience. There is a severe pest attacking the ashes all over Europe. Chalara dieback of ash is a serious disease of ash trees caused by a fungus called Chalara fraxinea (C. fraxinea). The disease causes leaf loss and crown dieback in affected trees, and usually leads to tree death.

Coppicing

Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which takes advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level. In subsequent growth years, many new shoots will emerge, and, after a number of years the coppiced tree, or stool, is ready to be harvested, and the cycle begins again. (The noun "coppice" means a growth of small trees or a forest coming from shoots or suckers.)

Typically a coppiced woodland is harvested in sections or coups on a rotation. In this way, a crop is available each year somewhere in the woodland. Coppicing has the effect of providing a rich variety of habitats, as the woodland always has a range of different-aged coppice growing in it, which is beneficial for biodiversity. The cycle length depends upon the species cut, the local custom, and the use to which the product is put. Birch can be coppiced for faggots (bundles of brushwood) on a three- or four-year cycle, whereas oak can be coppiced over a fifty-year cycle for poles or firewood.

We can coppice different types of trees:

• Oak (usually used for fences)
• Sweet chestnut (usually used for fences)
• Hazel (used for furniture)
• Ash
• Sycamore
• Willow (used for fuel and weaving)
• Lime (used for decoration)

Sometimes they do the coppicing taking part of the root, where the tree curves and gets into the groudn. There we can find the most flexible part of the tree, as it is where all the water is found.