Question from a clueless carnivore re: gardening products & vegans

[K8-EEE]

Hey all! I'm kind of the neighborhood garden lady and one of my friends wants me to help her set up a square foot veggie garden like mine.

She ordered a kit to set up a raised bed, and I'm going to help her prepare the space on Sat. a.m.

It just occurred to me that at least two of the products I would use, the compost and the fertilizer, have animal products (chicken manure, bat guano, etc.)

Does anybody here garden, and are there special products or methods you would use to set up a veggie garden? Or is manure not considered an "animal product" like meat or milk would be? Appreciate your thoughts on this, thanks!

[RebelOne]

1. Well, I'm a vegetarian, not a vegan, but I would say

that using manure should be OK because the animal didn't have to be killed for that product.

[K8-EEE]

2. Yeah but she would never even eat a piece of cheese

So that makes me feel like she would have the same problem with the manure, ie, how the animals are treated to produce the product (in cages etc.)O although, she shops at organic produce markets and I've never heard her ask if they use bone meal, blood meal, fish emulsion etc. And she eats from my garden which, I use manure, fish emulsion & other animal products.

I'm thinking it's one of those things she's never really thought about, but now we have to go shopping for the stuff and she's a package-reader so it's gonna be a big issue!

[Chan790]

3. As one of those label-readers...

I'd be more concerned with the fertilizer. http://living.peta.org/2008/vegan-fertilizers (or you can use alfalfa pellet...they rot and release nitrogen into the soil.)

Compost is biodegraded garbage, I know and expect that to have been from a variety of organic material and it's not really produced, it's a secondary (ie. waste) product. Well, unless you're actually buying compost in plastic bags from the Ace Hardware or Home Depot, in which case you're being a little silly to buy something that a great many people have in abundance to give away. I produce my own for my own usage and still give away probably a ton of it a year. (Well, I used to. I can't really compost here in NYC.)

[K8-EEE]

4. Well yeah we are buying SOMETHING in plastic bags from the nursery cuz

She wants the whole area set up on Sat. a.m. so it's not like she can set up a compost pile on Thursday and have it be ready.

I used to do my own compost too but my problem in L.A. is the same as yours in NYC - SPACE! Especially as my trees have gotten bigger, I have less and less sun and compost needs sun, so it lost out to the veggies.

Thanks for the peta link, she is a bigtime peta-phile, I will send it along and just let her make the decisions on what to use!

[flvegan]

5. Ask her what her thoughts are.

I can't imagine, personally as a vegan, that if I asked a friend to help me out with setting up my garden, that I'd be upset with manure. I have to understand that most of the veggies I buy are probably manure based fertilizer grown. I'd rather use something organic and different, but I don't think I'd get bent out of shape by it considering it's going to need to be done in 3 short days.

[K8-EEE]

6. Yes I sent her the Peta link from above

She read it & is going to do further research & decide what to do....I'm not an expert by any means, I only know what worked for me, mine is 1/3 commercial (Dr. Earth brand) organic compost which has among other things worm castings, bat guano & chicken manure.

The thing is, i really think basically if you eat organic veggies, they are def made with animal products, the only other way is "humanure" which I don't think is done commercially, or maybe using chems for nitrogen?

The sq. foot gardening mix is 1/3 compost planting mix, 1/3 vermiculite & 1/3 peat moss. So I guess she has now til Sat. to find substitutions or go with the flow!

Thanks for your thoughts everyone!

[Hun Joro]

7. Animal manure is almost certainly a by-product of factory farmed animals

I'm not sure how helpful this information is on short notice, but here are some links on veganic gardening:

http://www.vegansociety.com/people/lifestyle/home_and_garden/veganic_gardening.php

http://www.gentleworld.org/VEGAN/veganic-gardening.htm

Good luck! I wish my monster puppy would allow me to have a garden.

[stuntcat]

8. can you get safe compost?

We can get free compost from our city that is just old leaves and broken down vegetation. It smells and feels so good, I'm pretty sure it doesn't have any animal-stuff in it.

I'm gonna go without fertilizer this year, and my vegetable bed will be bigger than ever so I'll just hope for the best. I'm giving up on squash because every year I try to grow it the squash bugs kill the plants.. my evil thoughts can't stop them :*

[stuntcat]

9. (MULCH i meant)

:* :* :* we get the free mulch in my town