NFR: News Flash!!! Gardeners use manure!! May I rant?? I received this email from a guy who owns

J

joe

Well-known member
a duplex adjacent to one of the small urban gardens I manage. Mario already pitched a fit to the city and got himself a free fence last year by complaining about privacy. (He lived next to the empty lot for 30 years with no fence!) Now he wants to eliminate the use of manure in organic gardens.

For all kinds of stupid political reasons, (he works for the city; his cousin is an assistant to the councilman.) you all are one of the few groups I can openly share this with without getting in big trouble. Enjoy:

Subject: SO GROSS!!

My house smells like a toilet!!!!

A few of the plot holders at the Molina Garden are using manure! As you know my property is 3 feet way (sic) from the garden and my kitchens and bedrooms face the garden. This is disgusting that we have to smell manure and it makes it worse in the summer. We had to close all the windows and we shouldn't have to! In addition it has attracted thousands of flies. I had a broken screen and I found hundreds in my house.

How am I going to prepare meals and enjoy eating with the smell of manure!! This is not right! I am demanding LB Organic removes the manure and notifies all plot holders to stop using manure.

Please call me ASAP! This is so gross and if you were smelling manure in your home you would be upset to! (sic)

Best regards,

Mario

P.S. This came in at 7:00 on Friday night after an urgent phone message and text. I already call this guy "Princess Mario" and I was so so tempted to answer him with a suggestion that he call 911, but I am not answering until Monday. It will have to be a very dry response, but in the meantime, what would you all LIKE me to tell him?

Meanwhile, P. Mario's parents have a plot in the garden. They love it. They say "Gracias a Dios!" whenever they see me. Should I pull rank on the Princess, since his folks call me God? Yes, they use manure too.

(Manure/Compost blend is a great value at 98 cents a bag at both Home Depot and Lowes!!!!!!)

 
Well, this IS a city-approved garden, right?! Maybe his parents can be approached about it?

Maybe buy him a new screen as a goodwill gesture? I do sympathize with the guy having this smell all the time, but he could have put in a complaint before the garden went in to begin with. Suggest to his parents that he get an air purifier smileys/smile.gif

 
Of course, and there is no bad smell--at least there was none on Thursday when I was there last.

I'm going by this morning to see if there is something amiss, but I think he's just jonesing for some free screening.

He already got a free fence from the city by sending emails like this. The garden is on city property and he knows how to work the system.

Meanwhile, I think it's hysterical.

 
If all the gardeners are using composted manure, can't you prove there is no bad smell?

And I'm sure you all are using composted manure because it's safer and easier (and cheap from Home Depot!).

 
We have the same issues here in the desert in the fall when people plant their...

...winter lawns.

After you scalp the bermuda grass, you lay down a layer of rye grass seed and top it with an inch or so of composted manure.

So it smells bad for a week or so. We all know it's coming and we deal with it! With so many people doing it, we just take it in stride.

You appear to be at risk of having this squeaky wheel ruin your garden. The city could declare manure "off-limits", or even shut the garden down, right? All because of this guy's complaints.

In light of that, I would make sure this guy gets some benefit from the garden at harvest. He's going to have to see a 'return' or he'll continue to biotch.

Just for fun, bring a big mayonnaise jar full of fish emulsion for him to smell. Make sure he knows that's your alternative if you can't use sterilized manure.

Michael

 
Any kind of compost only smells if it has not been

completely developed. Or, on the odd chance that someone has added protein such as rotting meat (ugh). I know because not only do I use it all the time (and it has no odor), but I did my thesis on this, and I had 28 bins of it going, right outside my office door. Never a smell.

Fish emulsion, on the other hand, can smell. The kind I got this year smells like dead fish, but the smell disappears after 5 minutes. Maybe this brand used some shortcut way of manufacturing it. Still, not an unpleasant smell in the garden.

Good luck. He sounds like he's looking for trouble.

 
Bullies are never appeased...sounds like he will find something to complain about.

The councilman needs to tour the garden himself to access the 'smell' issue. Michael's right - maybe if he had some of the wonderful bounty.

 
So true! We do get a smelly compost pile once in a while but we add wood chips and that usually

takes care of it. Meanwhile the whole neighborhood loves having the garden there even if there is an occasional whiff of anaerobic activity.

I went by the offending garden this morning and one of the plots had a bag or two or steer manure spread on it. He's shocked, SCHOCKED, that gardeners are using manure in their garden plots. What are they supposed to do with it?

It's so hard for me to not tell this guy off, but I know he's looking for ammunition to get more free accommodations and/or money from the city. Thanks for listening.

 
Unfortunately the councilman is a jerk too. When this garden opened he made a huge media deal about

it, hogging all the attention and media coverage as if it were his idea. He left our organization out of all the press releases, even though I had designed and budgeted the project. Then the day before the groundbreaking his aide emailed ME for directions. They'd never been there, LOL! I didn't answer that email for a few days either.

 
Yes, but fortunately I mostly work with the Park and Rec. folks and they're wonderful.

City hall, that's another story!

 
One wouldn't, wouldn't one? LOL, I'm tempted, and I love using proper grammar about a bag of poop!

 
Well-said indeed, but this guy isn't old-- barely 30. Think of what a PITA he'll be when he's older

 
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