My New Hotbed

[ducks4you]

FINALLY after one full week of great weather and ME, fighting what I think was "walking pnemonia" I finished digging my hotbed!!! Many of you have heard me talk about wanting a cold frame for several years now. You get into gardening season--I get into riding season, too--and there isn't any time for it. Finally, I watched a gardening program on Colonial Williamsburg and I saw what I really needed was a "hotbed", which uses horse manure (something I have more than enough of) to heat from below to start your plants early and protect them.
I KNOW it's best to start with pictures, so here they are from this morning, and I will narrate:

Final digging yesterday (February 20, 2017). I got about 15 inches dug below ground. I am putting this where I have had my 3' x 6' "Salad Garden", that gets plenty of daily light.

The north side of my raised bed was falling to pieces, so I had to shore it up.

I pounded in a metal bar to support the corner and stole three 2 x 8's to shore it up. I also left a ledge and put in 3 bricks for extra security.

This was the last of 3 tow wagon's full of dirt. My gelding has been "pawing his way to China" and it left a depression, so I filled it. The same dirt was used to replant one of those hyacinth's that you buy in a glass vase. Every time it dries out it hardens, so I know that this fill will harden, too.
It's been creepy warm for the past week, but t-storms tonight will push me to put the horses inside. I will be dumping from the stalls starting tomorrow.

 

[ducks4you]

I read lots of articles over the years and this year I also watched plenty of videos, too. THIS one will help me if I decided that I really want to make one on the south side of my garage.
http://www.backwoodshome.com/build-an-old-fashioned-hotbed/
BUT, I didn't have the time or health to do it this way, This Time. So THIS article was much more helpful for the short term:
http://joybileefarm.com/hot-bed-gardening/
I will need to put on my "Wellies" and compress the manure every time I add a layer--that means I will be stomping on it. This afternoon will be a good start, since I have the last stall cleaning in my big wheelbarrow ready to dump and, like I SAID, it's going to pour tonight.
The manure requires compaction AND watering. Why should I pay for the water?!?!?
I only need to go 12 of the 15 inches and each horse makes 40 lbs/manure daily, I collect from 12 hours worth in the stalls, so...40 x 3 divided by 2 = 60 pounds of manure collection daily.
I put aside the top layers of soil from this bed into an old muck bucket, a large rubber watering bowl (both of these had leaks so I lined them with garbage bags), and I also filled up a whiskey barrel planter that had a plastic liner. They are all in my extra building so that when it's time to move that dirt it won't be wet...or frozen. I plan to mix this soil with some decayed stall leavings from last year, broken down, to make it easy to manipulate and so it will NOT harden like the soil you see on the last post. I will get you picture of that, soon, too.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes to fill the ~ 3' x 6' x 1' deep. I will keep you posted.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Dad started his sweet potato slips this way, with a hot bed covered with a heavy cheesecloth. it enabled him to get his starts early enough to get a crop.

in another variation of this, Dad would dig a fairly deep hole in the garden, put some chicken manure in it, built a mound on top, and plant his squash or melon seeds. The heat helped them sprout and by the time the roosts got down there they had a lot of nutrients, something like burying a fish when you pant corn.

 

[ducks4you]

Neat!!!
I am HAPPY for ideas!!!!!!
It would be easy to assume that Spring is already here, but we get some WICKED winds in March that do in what you start in an open bed. That's why I want to protect what I put in this bed. HOPING that I can start the cold weather crops early here and then move on to warm weather crops that get good protection too.
I could have dumped $300-$500 on a greenhouse from Harbor Freight, but I think that low to the ground is the best way to go. It is NOT unusual for us to have 50mph winds...or more. That would destroy my greenhouse investment.
I have a good dozen glass/plexiglass windows with no particular use that I never threw away, and many bricks and cinder blocks to keep them down.

 

[ducks4you]

I am such a rebel and choose to ignore this advice and dump the manure straight in:
"The first essential in preparing a manure hotbed is to have fresh horse manure, preferably from grain fed animals. The manure should contain one-third straw or other similar litter. Sometimes there is insufficient straw in the manure for proper heating. If it does not have sufficient straw in the manure it may not ferment or, if fermentation does take place, the heat may be evolved rapidly and be of only short duration. About 10 to 12 days before the manure is to be put in the pit it should be placed in a flat pile 4 to 5 feet high. If it is dry it should be dampened with water, but not made soggy. The manure should begin to heat in 3 or 4 days after which it should be turned placing the inside of the pile on the outside of the new one. In 3 or 4 more days the manure should be ready to be placed in the pit. The manure is filled into the pit in successive layers of 4 to 6 inches and tramped firmly to secure uniform heating and prevent excessive settling."
http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/how-to-build-a-hotbed-zmaz76mazhar
Don't worry, my manure contains pieces of hay and more "browns" from soiled pine bedding, mostly Equine Fresh, where they make a soup of ground up sawdust, then extrude it and dry it into pellets. It breaks down much faster that just pine shavings, but there are pine shavings in there, too. Plus I am still using some straw in their stalls.
What sweet ponies to, again help me garden!!!
I figure that regardless this will be an early Spring with some "unexpected" freezes. In 2012 I had spinach survive the non-winter in their 2011 beds and we were harvesting in March!

 

[ducks4you]

My "Dream hotbed!"
http://makinghistorynow.com/2015/01/from-the-garden-of-horse-dung-and-hotbeds/

Sounds a little bit like this:

 

[ducks4you]

Their entire hotbed is lined with bricks to keep the heat from escaping. My first crude attempt won't be, but it doesn't matter. Consider that 15 inches below this bed will be manure decomposing to be used again next year. It's a win-win. And, I have now double dug 5/13 beds, so THAT's a win-win.
You should realize that, except for the gas to run the mower to dump the dirt and the electricity to cut the trees roots out as I was digging yesterday, this project will cost me: zero, zilch, nada
MY favorite price.
SO MANY TIMES I have bought gardening stuff for a project and wasted my money because I never got to it.
This time I have been frugal.

 

[ducks4you]

Here is some Colonial food for thought:
http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/garden/how-americans-gardened-260-years-ago

 

[thistlebloom]

Great idea Ducks. I was going to do a simple one for a melon bed one year but never got to it. I'll watch and learn from your efforts!

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Have you heard of Charles Dowdling? I can't find the video, but he shows his greenhouse and he has manure hotbeds in the greenhouse starting flats of seeds. Here is a video outside. I am not sure if this is horse manure, but he does show some videos with hot manure and uses a thermometer to test temperature. Very interesting and if I could get horse manure right now I would try it. I might be able to get some manure and going to look into it.