Love your pet, Naturally™

ArcaNatura produces high-end, organic products for dogs, cats and horses.

•    100% Natural
•    Clinically-proven
•    Contain no added dyes or fragrances

All of ArcaNatura’s wellness products are highly biodegradable, eco friendly and utilize recyclable packaging.

Telephone: (860) 405-9214

Support@ArcaNatura.com
Website: http://us.ArcaNatura.com

When was the last time you looked at the ingredient label of your favorite dog or cat food? Behind innocent-sounding words like “meat byproducts” and “meat meal” are horrific manufacturing practices that would turn your stomach. The nutritional considerations of pet foods go beyond the sources of meat in them. Pet food manufacturers add dangerous preservatives and vitamin fortifications that actually make your pets’ food less healthy.

What if we fed our pets a simpler version of what we eat ourselves? Just like feeding yourself, it might take a bit of planning, and little knowledge, but it’s worth the effort. Your pets will thank you.

Here are some tips along with a couple of recipes to get you started.

1.    Variety is important. Rotating protein and carbohydrate sources will help cover all the nutritional bases.

2.    Good protein sources include human-grade raw ground round or sirloin; ground poultry (higher –fat dark meat is best— pets require more fat than humans do); and occasionally organ meats, all from animals raised without antibiotics or hormones. If you are concerned about feeding your pet raw meat, cook it lightly.

3.    Good sources of carbohydrates include fruits, vegetables. Pets usually like apples, carrots, green beans and yams just to name a few.

4.    Both cats and dogs have high calcium requirements. Add one teaspoon of powdered calcium , eggshell powder or bonemeal to each pound of raw meat and work it in before you add anything else.

5.    Portion sizes vary according to size, age and activity level.

6.    Make sure and monitor your pet closely when introducing new food. If you notice excessive licking, inflames ears, or digestive problems switch to a simplified diet.

Beef Dinner For Dogs

Ingredients

1 pound lean ground beef
1 ounce beef heart or liver
10 ounces cooked brown rice
2 ounces mixed greens
1 teaspoon eggshell powder or bonemeal
½ teaspoon iodized salt

Method

1.    In a frying pan, cook meat until lightly browned
2.    Mix cooked meat, rice, greens, and other ingredients.
3.    Divide into portions and immediately freeze what cannot be eaten in the next two or three days.

Daily ration:
Toy- 1-2 cups
Medium- 6-7 cups
Large- about 8 cups
Giant – 9+ cups

Cat Dinner

6 oz. roasted turkey breast.

1/2 c. cooked white rice.

5 tsp canola oil.?1/4 tsp salt substitute (potasium cloride).

1/8 tsp salt with iodine

1000 mg taurine (health food store).

1 ground up childs vitaman/mineral tab. (garlic press works so well!)

1 1/2 tsp bone meal (health food store)

Divide into portions and immediately freeze what cannot be eaten within the next few days.

Can you share any of your ideas on eating healthy for pets? We would love to hear from you. Leave in the comments section below.

The holiday season produces an hefty quantity of waste. What better way to return those materials to the Earth than composting.  After all, composting is the Earth’s natural  recycling program. You add materials from around the house that you once considered garbage, and they will decompose into feasts for worms and microbes and produce rich soil for your garden. By composting, you’re using your waste to create more life.

You must learn how to compost correctly, or you’ll just be creating a toxic dump in your backyard. But composting is not as daunting as it sounds: You’re basically throwing stuff in a bin and mixing it with other stuff, rather than tossing it in the garbage can. Composting does take time, though; it will take between six and 12 months for your composter to produce the dark brown, nearly black material that you can add to the soil in the garden.

The holiday season is one of the best sources of composting material. Starting a compost pile in the winter isn’t ideal because compost must be kept dry and because you’ll have more grass clippings and other greenery in the spring. But if you already compost, the holidays produce plenty of material that can be returned to mother Earth by being composted.

Here are some basic  composting  pointers to get you started.??Choose a quality composter or make your own.

You’ll need a Composter

You may choose to purchase one or make yourself. There are many types of  composters  on the market: tumblers, grates, bins, pods, even glorified garbage cans. Research and compare the various types online or at a local garden shop and decide which one suits your needs and space requirements; just be sure it has a lid.

Alternatively you may choose to make a composter yourself with stakes and chicken wire or recycled wooden pallets. Binding, screwing or wiring four wooden pallets together to make a box creates an easy, functional composter and keeps the pallets out of the landfill. Ask a local business if they can spare a few.

Choose where to a locate your Composter

Use a level spot with excellent drainage away from walls or wooden fences. If you can it is a good idea to keep the composter away from trees as well because their roots will seek the moisture and nutrients in your compost pile.

You’ll need to allocate 4 or 5 square feet of space; the more space you have, the easier it will be to access. Holiday scraps you may compost  Now that your composter set up, it’s important that you use it correctly. Begin by laying down a base layer consisting of branches and twigs about 6 inches deep.  A wooden pallet may also work well as a base layer. This will assist the air circulation under the material you will add to the composter. Creating proportionate layers of brown and green material is a smart strategy.

Much of your Holiday waste is compostable like wreaths made from evergreens or other greens, cut flowers and, of course, plants.

Your green layer might include:

•    Grass clippings

•    Tea leaves and  organic  tea bags

•    Coffee grounds

•    Dead flowers

•    Weeds ( just leaves; not roots or seeds)

•    Old plants

Your brown layer might include:

•    Wood material, twigs, wood chips (best if shredded)

•    Coffee grounds

•    Recycled brown paper, cardboard, paper-towel rolls (best if shredded)

•    Leaves (in moderate amounts) and pinecones

•    Eggshells and paper egg cartons

•    Sawdust, wood shavings

•    Hay and straw (in small quantities)

•    Clothes dryer lint, pet and human hairs

•    Uncooked kitchen scraps

Items that should not be composted:

•    Meat or fish

•    Grease, oil or cooked food scraps

•    Kitty litter

•    Manure of any type

•    Dirty diapers

•    Ashes from your barbecue

Kitchen scraps are abundant during the holidays, and most of these scraps qualify as either green or brown material, depending on what you decide to cook for your holiday meals.

A good practice is to set aside a bin in your kitchen for collecting food preparation scraps. Consider a stainless steel bucket with a lid, which you can keep on your kitchen counter within easy reach.

The lists above are worth keeping on hand until you memorize them.  Pay careful attention to what not to include, and begin collecting your scraps.

Remember, cooked food should never be added to a compost pile as it lacks the necessary enzymes that break it down. When your counter-top container is full, empty it into your composter and mix it in. If you’re just getting started and the composter is empty, it is advisable to toss in some grass clippings to cover your kitchen scraps to deter pests.

Happy Composting!

Hosting a Hanukkah, Christmas, or New Years Eve party can be a daunting undertaking – and it can be tough on the environment too. Consider these tips to help make your festivities a little more earth-friendly.

Decking the Halls

For atmospheric lighting, use soy candles.  These are made from 100 percent soybeans, a renewable and sustainable resource.  Soy wax is non-toxic and the candles are completely biodegradable.  For an outdoor event, buy a set of solar yard lights and don’t forget to put them in prior to the party on a sunny day.

Use flowers from your own garden or the local farmer’s market for decoration.  You can even pot some of your own plants for party favors to encourage your guests to garden.  Wrap pots or vases in colorful scarves or scrap fabric.

For a tablecloth, use a quilt, rug, or pretty sheet you already have.  You can even use a painter’s cloth for that casual ‘linen’ look.

For a Centerpiece- Try purchasing a baby tree from your local nursery, wrap the container with layers of burlap, and tie with a shiny ribbon. Place on a cake stand as a living centerpiece, and plant right after the party.

Eats & Drinks

Serve organic beer and wine as well as appetizers made from organic ingredients.  Even better: Source these items locally to reduce the carbon emissions of groceries transported long distance.   If possible, support local farmers through a visit to the local farmers’ market.

Eat Local- Try to shop locally for food and gifts. Buying local products reduces the amount of fuel used to transport food and supports your local farm economy. What’s more, local food simply tastes better because it’s had time to ripen naturally rather than in a crate.

Be aware of which foods are in season when planning your menu, but the best method of eating local is to preserve food when it’s in season for future use.

Serving organic food is another eco-friendly option. If an entire meal of organics seems out of your budget, mixing organic food with local food is one way to create a less expensive sustainable meal. If a product claims to be 100 percent organic it must contain only organic ingredients; however, words on the label such as “natural” or “green” mean very little because there are no regulations to control the use of these terms.

Quick Reminders:

•    Send invitations online: use evites or personalized email.
•    Decorate with pesticide-free, organic flowers.
•    Use organic fabric tablecloths and napkins.
•    Light up with soy or beeswax candles.
•    Avoid disposable dishes and utensils; rent instead.

Think about this! Start a new tradition of eco-friendly holiday entertaining and reclaim the holidays for what they were originally meant to be–a time for friends and family.

Enjoy the holiday season!

Laundry. You gotta do it!  Each day, we use clothing, towels, bedding… and, inevitably, we have to clean it. But how can we do this in the greenest way possible?

You see, second to the refrigerator, the washing machine and dryer use the most energy in the home. And that isn’t the only ungreen thing about these appliances; most of the laundry cleaners go down into our water systems, too.

Here are our top tips for making the chore of laundry as green as can be:

Choose a Front Loader

Front loading washing machines clean clothes more thoroughly and use less water and energy than most top-loading counterparts. Even further, if they bear that Energy Star logo, they typically use between 18 and 25 gallons of water per load; compared to the 40-plus gallons used by older machines, that’s significant.

Keep it Cold

No matter what kind of machine you have, using cold water will improve its energy efficiency. About 90 per cent of the energy used for the washing machine is from heating the water. It’s estimated that you can save anywhere from $50 to $100 a year by switching to washing on cold.

Say No to Irritants

Most conventional laundry soaps contain irritants that bother our bodies and the environment. These phosphates that can cause a negative impact on our ecosystem, and synthetic dyes and fragrances can cause some major problems. However, there are many phosphate and bleach-free products made from biodegradable, plant- and vegetable-based ingredients

Put it on the Line

An easy energy saving option: don’t use the dryer altogether. Drying on a line saves energy and leaves your clothes smelling with a lovely freshness you can’t get anywhere else.

Dry It Right

If you must use the dryer, be sure to keep the lint filter clean. It will increase efficiency and shorten drying time, and reduce the wear and tear on clothes. The best part? It will save loads of energy.

No More Dryer Sheets

Although hanging it to dry is the best option, sometimes the weather isn’t compliant, or a fluffy soft towel is necessary. However, those dryer sheets are full of toxins that leech into our breathing space. A better option? Try making your own with a  moist washcloth sprayed with liquid fabric softener and tossing it into the dryer.

Other Quick Tips

•    Instead of washing two small loads, just wash one instead.

•    If you only have a few things to wash, and want to wash them because you had a slip in the mud or a problem with some tomato sauce, be sure to set your water level accordingly.

•    However, be sure not to overload your water – they need to move freely in order to get clean.

•    Cold-water rinse saves energy, even if they were washed in hot water.

•    Do all your laundry loads on the same day. If the dryer is hot from another load, or the water is heated from the previous run, it used leftover heat instead of starting from scratch.

With recent droughts and cities enacting water-saving measures, many are seeking ways to lower their water use. Is Synthetic grass the solution for lowering your water use and lowering your water bill?

Since the average home uses more than 70% of their water for outdoor use, can installing artificial grass be the answer to lowering your impact on the environment? And, is it really eco-friendly?

If you have been thinking of having synthetic grass installed in your garden with that reassuring reason in mind, make sure you know all the facts before making a final decision.

On the Up Side

Some companies seem to have the environment in mind more than others. For example, ForeverLawn offers a line of grass blades made from recycled plastics, and with a backing layer made from soybean plants and recycled plastic bottles. That type of grass is marketed as being 100% recyclable, and is more expensive than other conventional grasses. SYNLawn also makes use of soybeans to manufacture its backing.

On the Down Side

Whether fake grass is made of recycled or virgin materials, its manufacturing is a very energy intensive process, during which greenhouse gases are emitted.  Natural grass is often accused of necessitating high quantities of fertilizing and gas-mowing, two activities that produce greenhouse gas emissions, but according to a research conducted by Berkeley’s  Laboratory For Manufacturing And Sustainability, artificial turf releases more greenhouse gases in its production, transportation and processing than the maintenance of natural turf.

Widespread use of artificial lawn could contribute to global warming too, as synthetic grass temperatures can be as high as 30 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit above the air temperature. Off-gassing is also thought of occurring during the artificial grass lifecycle, which is currently about 10 years.

Before looking into synthetic grass, seriously consider other, eco-friendlier and natural options:

- Organically maintained lawns mowed with push reel mowers and fertilized with compost, to reduce CO2 emissions

- Low-water eco-lawns

- Other drought-tolerant ground covers such as clover or rock garden

If you need to cover only a small area in your garden and the above options are not possible, then artificial grass might be the solution for you. But let’s not lure ourselves into believing that it is eco-friendly:  it won’t fool butterflies and other insects and birds that enhance our garden experience.

Let us know what you think. We would like to hear your comments pro and con on artificial surfaces.

What’s the best way to avoid the “Summertime Blues”? Throw a party of course!

Celebrate summer’s sweet inception by hosting the best (and greenest) shindig on the block. So put on your party hat and dancing shoes and follow our green party tips.

Say No To Paper Invites

We know, there’s nothing quite like a personalized invitation in the mail. But stationary can cost a ton of money and use an unnecessary amount of resources.
In fact, the Sierra Club estimates that about 900 million trees are cut down annually for the production of paper worldwide.

While you may think an online invitation isn’t quite as glam, it really is the newest trend in party planning. Online invitation and social planning website evite has more than 22 million registered users and sends out more then 25,000 invitations each hour! Plus, you can create a design that’s perfect for your event. The website even offers eco-themed invitations.

Make That Menu A Local One

Buying from local vendors at places such as farmers’ markets cuts back on carbon emissions because fewer miles traveled from farm to table means fewer emissions produced from the vehicle transporting the food.

Also, try to buy foods produced organically and look for seasonal items to save money and get the best produce available.

For your backyard barbecue, opt for grass-fed burgers and steaks, which typically require fewer pesticides, fossil fuels and antibiotics than the corn-fed alternative.

Energy-Efficient Lighting Of Course

The best way to reduce your party’s footprint is to calculate its energy usage. The No. 1 way to avoid added costs to your electric bill is to utilize the outdoors – perfect lighting, temperature and truly inherent green setting.

Host your barbecue at midday when the light is bright and fills your crowd with energy.

For an upscale affair, hold cocktails at dusk when the backdrop of sunset makes guests feel their most glamorous. In the evening, candles will give your celebration a gilded glow.

But if weather just doesn’t permit, use energy-efficient lighting to illuminate your party. A CFL bulb uses 75 percent less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than an incandescent bulb.

Go one step further and upgrade to LED bulbs, which typically have a longer lifespan than traditional incandescents. Typical incandescent bulbs last only 1,000 to 2,000 hours, with some estimates quoting LED lifespans from 25,000 to 50,000 hours.

Decorations Might Be In Your Own Back Yard

You don’t have to buy fancy paper lanterns or tasteful art for your next get-together. Beautiful decor can be found right outside your door. Cut tall grasses and place in a vase.
Fill a glass jar with rocks and top it off with a candle. If you’re a gardener then it’s time to harvest those blooms! Use your old mugs or glass stemware for display.

Use Propane for Grilling

The debate between charcoal and propane is a tough one: Which one produces more flavor? Which is cheaper, faster? And most importantly, which is more eco-friendly?

According to a study by Environment Impact Assessment Review, “the overwhelming factors are that as a fuel, LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) is dramatically more efficient than charcoal in its production and considerably more efficient in cooking.” The two grilling methods were defined by their overall footprint, with charcoal using 998 kg of CO2, almost three times more than propane, which weighed in at 349 kg.

ScienceDaily reports that as fuel, LPG is “dramatically more efficient than charcoal in its production.” When purchasing a propane tank, make sure there is a trade-in option. Most retailers will let you bring in an empty tank in exchange for a decent discount on your next tank.

Recycle, Recycle, Recycle

It’s a no-brainer. One of the easiest ways to go green is to recycle your waste. So don’t leave your recycling smarts at home and be sure to put a clearly marked bin out at your party.

There’s a good chance someone will have a plastic cup or a glass bottle to toss in the bin. Also, be sure to check with your local curbside program to confirm the items it accepts for recycling.

Leftovers Anyone?

Instead of throwing away the leftovers, send guests home with them (or better yet, have them bring a few reusable to-go containers in anticipation of take-home treats!), donate remainder to a local homeless shelter and compost what you can.

For everything that’s left, consider composting. According to the U.S. EPA, each American throws away an average of 1.3 pounds of food scraps daily. In addition to this, yard trimmings and food waste combined make up 24 percent of the nation’s municipal solid waste stream.

Even if half of this can be diverted and recycled through composting, our daily trash levels could start to decrease.

Make The Cleanup Eco-Friendly Too!

Cleaning products get the job done, but at what cost? They can be responsible for around 10 percent of toxic exposures reported to poison control centers and are difficult to dispose of properly. You can most likely find nontoxic alternatives at your grocery store.

You can also purchase paper towels made of recycled content, but they become non-recyclable once you use them to clean the house. However, you can return to the pre-disposable days and use clean towels and sponges until they wear out. This creates less waste and saves you money on supplies.

Remember the broom and the mop? These cleaning classics are still pretty effective for getting your rooms to sparkle, and you don’t need to plug them in or charge batteries to power them.

So go forth and enjoy the summer!

When it comes to saving water in the kitchen, a few small steps can make a big difference. Consider these tips for reducing your water consumption every day.

Rather than running the tap when cleaning vegetables, use a bowl of water. Later, reuse it to water outdoor plants. Reusing water from rinsing out the coffeepot for outdoor plants, the compost or lawn is something we do all the time.

Rich in nitrogen as well as some trace minerals, coffeepots should be diluted with water before using. Choose a different group of plants every day and you may find you no longer have to water or fertilize them very often at all.

Cooking water (pasta, steamed vegetables, boiled potatoes etc.) can be used in the same way – just let it cool first. All of these water sources contain extra nutrients that will aid your gardens immensely.

Very hot cooking water can be used to kill weeds – simply pour it directly on the weed and around its roots.

After meals, scrape your dishes into the compost bucket before rinsing. While rinsing, place other soiled dishes, jars and utensils underneath while you work; it will begin the pre-soaking process – reducing labor and water use. Anything caught in the sink basket can be contributed to the compost, too.

Save about 5 gallons of water per washing by doing dishes in a few inches of hot soapy water. It may seem funny to do this – but by turning the hot water tap on to rinse the dishes into the sink the level will slowly increase and will maintain a hot temperature. This way, another sink full of water solely for rinsing is no longer necessary. We sometimes use rinse water to pre-soak stuck on dishes as well.

Store drinking water in the refrigerator. Rather than letting the tap run to get a cool drink of water. If you don’t like the taste of your tap water, purchase a filter pitcher or add a filter to your tap. You will save money over buying bottled water, and the energy used, and the pollution created to produce, ship, and dispose of all those plastic bottles.

Control the aerator of your faucet. The screw-on tip of the faucet, called the aerator, ultimately determines the maximum flow rate of a faucet. Aerators are inexpensive to replace and they can be one of the most cost-effective water conservation measures.

Now, if you measured the amount of water saved each day by those simple methods we just described – there would be dozens of gallons of pure, drinkable water left untouched in the reservoir. By reducing hot water consumption, our energy bills are a little bit smaller. All this, just from the kitchen sink!

Let’s face it… Ants are pests, indoors and out. They can ruin a picnic, damage wood support beams and protect the pesky aphid in your garden. Fortunately, they’re easy to control, once you learn their habits, hiding places and favorite foods.

Before you start trying to eliminate ants, identify the type you’re dealing with. Ants are attracted to different foods (sugar, proteins, wood, etc.). Carpenter ants, the most destructive variety, live in wood and can destroy support beams much like termites. Most common, though, is the small, brown Argentine ant which nests outdoors and is drawn to sweets. The light yellow or reddish pharaoh ant nests inside of buildings and isn’t picky in its choice of foods. Other ant species include the reddish thief ant, attracted to meats and grease, and the brown or black pavement ant, which can nest in foundations.

Step 1: Prevent them from entering your home.

The easiest remedy for household infestations is prevention: deprive ants of entry to your home and access to any food or water in it. Seal food and sugar in airtight containers, wipe crumbs and sticky residues off counters, wash dishes immediately, keep your garbage and recycling bins tightly sealed and fix any leaking taps.

When you first notice a trail of ants in your house, follow it to its entry point and caulk all holes and cracks around it. In areas that can’t be sealed, leave a small, low wattage night light on for a few nights in the area of most ant activity. The change in light can disrupt and discourage their foraging patterns.

If the ant colonies are in your home, vacuum them up! Add some cornstarch to the vacuum bag to suffocate them, and make sure you are using a HEPA filter. Dispose of the bag immediately to prevent living ants from finding their way out.

Step 2: Make your own ant bait. Lots of ingredients already in your kitchen can act as natural ant deterrents. Set any of the following at an ant’s entry point in a small line that ants won’t cross: citrus oil (can be soaked into a piece of string), lemon juice, coffee grounds, cucumber peels, mint tea bags or dried mint leaves, cloves, cinnamon or cayenne pepper.

To kill and drive away ants that you see, mix a teaspoon of dish soap with water in a spray bottle; this will also clean up the scent trails they leave for others to follow. Citrus oil and water or plain white vinegar is equally effective.

DIY Ant Bait Recipes

• Mix a half teaspoon each of honey, borax and aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet, etc.), in small bottles. Place bottles on their sides, with lids off. Ants will carry the bait back to their colonies. Important: use indoors only; must be kept away from pets and children.

• For an easy ant hotel, mix one cup of borax with one cup of sugar. Place a loose wad of toilet paper in four different screw-top jars. Divide the sugar and borax mixture among the four jars, over the toilet paper. Fill each jar with water to one inch of the top. Screw the lids on the jars, and with a hammer and nail, make four to eight holes in the lid. Place the jars in areas where you have ants, but keep away from pets and children and label the jars “poison.”

Step 3: Use less-toxic pesticides. Boric acid is widely available and isn’t harmful unless eaten or directly inhaled. You can sprinkle it in bottle caps or lids then place those near ant sightings for an easy ant killer.  Ants will carry the poison back to their nests and contaminate their friends. It can take a few weeks to see results, though. When looking for a product, make sure it contains only boric acid or natural ingredients, such as Pic Boric Acid.

Another effective insecticide is diatomaceous earth (DE), a dust that robs insects of moisture and breaks apart their skin. Unless directly inhaled, it doesn’t pose a threat to humans, but do keep away from children and pets. Again, look for products that contain natural DE with no other chemical ingredients.

Drax Ant Bait is borax gel that comes in two flavors: sugar bait for ants attracted to sweet things (like honey) and a protein bait for ants attracted to grease and non-sugary.

Whether you are growing your own veggies to help reduce the effects of global warming by minimizing food miles, or so you can have tastier food, you should be using manure as a fertilizer.  It may sound disgusting and unhygienic but using animal manure as fertilizer is a practice that’s probably as old as agriculture and it’s something that’s still very widely popular today, both in large-scale farming and in suburban gardens. It’s quite possible to grow healthy plants cleanly using manure fertilizers and it shouldn’t be discounted for food crops.

Synthetic fertilizers may seem like a more hygienic alternative to using manure in the garden, but actually some of the chemicals involved can be very nasty and the potential hazards are if anything even greater. Artificial fertilizers and pesticides also contribute to a wealth of environmental problems from soil degradation to toxic algal blooms in downstream lakes and rivers. In people, high concentrations of synthetic agrochemicals can cause serious health problems and even birth defects. If properly used, poo is a better, healthier alternative.

Horse manure can be bought from any riding school or stables for a very small fee or sometimes taken away for free. Usually there is some straw mixed in but this is an asset rather than a problem. The two together can make an excellent mulch if allowed to rot down. Proper rotting will also kill off pathogens that might be harmful to humans.

Poultry manure can be bought from most garden centres or begged from anyone who keeps chickens or ducks for the eggs. This is strong stuff and a little goes a long way. In fact, it’s so strong that chicken manure can actually ‘burn’ plants and harm soil, so it’s best kept for species that really like their nitrogen. Like other manures it should be rotted down before application to garden beds.

To do that, build a manure pile at least 3ft high and turn it with a garden fork every couple of weeks. Unfortunately the pile has to be that big or it won’t generate enough internal heat to break down properly. The warmer the weather, the quicker the decomposition process will be. Keep the pile reasonably moist but not soaking wet. Horse manure can take as little as a month to make the transition from poo to compost, but stronger varieties like chicken manure can take up a year. Horse manure also smells a lot less than that of pigs or poultry.

The finished compost will look more or less like a rich, dark soil. It shouldn’t smell of anything but earth and it can be spread fairly thickly on garden beds and used to grow anything you like- potatoes, peas, roses, or corn. There may still be bits of straw and other material, but this doesn’t necessarily mean the compost isn’t ready.

One thing to watch for in garden beds that have been treated with manure is weed plants. Seeds often pass through an animal’s digestive tract undamaged and can then germinate. However, regular weeding is essential for optimum growth of vegetables and ornamental plants anyway so it’s always a good idea to make that a regular task.

Some research has shown that antibiotics and growth hormones used in animal agriculture can be passed through into manure and hence into the soil it’s applied to. The idea of a chemical being passed through a horse or a chicken and hence into your fruit and veg may seem pretty extreme but it is possible. However, the issue can be avoided by sourcing your manure from organic farms or local stables. Avoid slurry and fertilizer products from large scale agro-businesses.

No matter where you get your vegetables from, be it your own garden or the supermarket, they should always be washed before being eaten or cooked. Avoiding manure contamination is certainly no more difficult than making sure all traces of harmful synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are removed from fruit and vegetables before they reach your table.

Author Bio: Jess Spate is a keen gardener and sustainable business consultant for Appalachian Outdoors and Fountain Spirit. She now lives in Wales, but grew up in rural Australia, where her family still grow their own vegetables with animal manure fertilizer.

Distribution Info:?Content distribution done on behalf of Christine Cooney, publisher of house plan designs & floor plan designs.