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I’ve read that horse manure is richer in nitrogen than cow manure.
If you’re concerned about minerals in the garden, read The Intelligent Gardener by Steve Solomon. I live in the same general area that he used to, so I’m used to seeing soil tests come back very low in some minerals.
The soil will feed itself if you take care of it. You don’t need to add fertilizer if your creating a complete system. If you want to ensure that they’re well fed, you could go ahead and give your garden a balanced organic fertilizer of the first couple of years. The only thing I give mine is mineral rebalancing.
I was talking to a wonderful soil scientist who is working on my company’s new HQ. He was talking about building the soil. I did some math and had to ask him how he can good soil that quickly. He told he that he plants a cover crop *in* the compost before he uses it. He says that supercharges the microbes so that he has a large population of biota going in. His results are impressive.
I don’t know, but I’ll second what you’re saying. I bought bloody dock last year and it’s not done a thing so far.
Hi, Ben. I do something pretty similar – I put down cardboard, water it and put my own soil mix on the top. I don’t use any plastic. But I also do it on paths and cover it with bark. I often get cardboard springing up when I first put it down- especially when I don’t wet it enough or put a lot down. I weigh the edges down with rocks. I do live in a wet climate, so the dampness and the weight of the rock settle it down pretty quickly. You might want to try that, just on the edges. Hope it works for you! I don’t find that I solves everything, but it certain cuts down on the problems.