Yeah - drive out to a ranch that gives away free composted manure! It's worth the drive. If you don't have a truck, borrow one!

I use organics (manure,compost, alfalfa), but every spring I apply non-organics to my roses. I had excellent results using 13-13-13 purchased at a local feed store, although lawn fertilizer worked well also. I, too, have to look for cheap since I have so many roses, not to mention all my other garden plants.
Molly

I only use alfalfa and compost and bags of composted manure on my roses. It's fairly cheap but it can be a lot of work (I make my own compost). You wont see a huge difference with alfalfa right away. I do it in the spring and maybe again in August, if I feel like it. But if you put enough organic material around the roses, they will respond. And don't forget watering.

I don't soak the alfalfa, I just put down the pellets and mix it in with the compost and manure and let it break down naturally.

Does your city have a green waste program? Often, those which do will give away, or sell inexpensively, the products of their composting. The down side is you have no idea what kinds of herbicides may have also been included, but it might be a readily available, inexpensive to free source of organic material. Los Angeles has one here and I can load my truck with all I can haul, free of charge, from the one outlet here in the Valley. It's worth checking out. Kim

I scatter alfalfa pellets all over the garden, peppering the ground heavily. Then I water the beds well. It is really easy. I never bother with that stinky tea. Let the alfalfa steep slowly in the garden. Next I spread compost over that, either city yard waste compost or composted horse manure. That's it -- done for the year.

I'll be doing this in a couple of weeks. I prune and weed the whole garden first. I still have the porch garden and the whole back fence to do. If I'm not done by Valentine's Day I'll go ahead and fertilize then anyway.

Rosefolly

Ive been poking around various garden centers & several have old sacks of stuff for 1/2 price. Picked up some superbloom, green light iron supplement, torn sack of gypsom.

Used to live in a city that made chipped brush available free for the hauling--it was good stuff.

Also have some nice mulch from 15 sacks of leaves I picked up from the curb of a neighbor--think I'll get some more, & some grass clippings.

I've found that alfalfa meal, watered in well, shows results in a week or two in terms of new growth and then increased bloom. A 50 lb. bag from the feed store costs around $32, but I know it's cheaper than that in other states. Other than that I mulch with leaves and make sure the roses always have enough water, and that's all I've done so far. Just the other day I noticed a chicken ranch that was giving away manure, and that's something I want to investigate.

Ingrid

Good morning Ingrid,
You probably already know this but others may not so...
chicken manure is considered a hot manure. It must be well composted (old), or it will burn surrounding plants.
I occasionally have access to it. It is much more effective than horse manure. I compost it for 4-6 months.
Jeannie

wow!! thanks for all the responses. my son does have a truck, so maybe i'll convince him to pick up some cow poop for his crazy rose mom?? it will at least be a good story for him to complain to his friends about!! :)

and just spreading the pellets about, alfalfa...i can do that.

thanks everyone for the input. i like the idea of lawn fertilizer, too. i like organics, but a bit of this once a year to balance things....hmmm.

so even on the numbers?? 13-13-13? i will check this out too.

And that bit about 'working it into the top 5 inches of soil"...impossible! with 200 roses, THAT won't happen. Think i'll spread it out around the bases, the top with mulch.

I am over my head in rose duties this year!! (and a dozen waiting for planting that i have nursed through the winter!)

rose hoarding anonymous!!

I think you will find that if you are consistently putting organic material around your roses, leaves, alfalfa, compost, manure, the ground will become more permeable and you will not have to work anything in. Just water it in well, or wait until you know you are getting a lot of rain and do it right before that. I never dig anything in anymore.

I can get a 50lb bag of pellets for about $12. I had a chance to get alfalfa meal through my rose club, but forgot to send in my check :(

Also, here in the southeast we have a great source of composted manure. I originally bought the black Kow, which of course is cow manure. But last year I tried the black hen, which is chicken manure. Both are composted. I tried the chicken manure because it was in smaller bags and I thought it would be easier for me to use. But the smell! My God! Even my neighbors could smell it. I don't think I will use that again, LOL.

I put chicken manure on my pastures one year and nearly got run out of town by the neighbors. However, I didn't think it smelled if it was properly composted because the year before that, we put down older, very dry stuff, and it didn't smell when wet.

I've been lurking here for a while, but I can't help but chime in to let you know that Dallas does allow hens, in case you wanted one. The last 2 or 3 springs there's even been a Chicken Coop tour. I went on one, and was amazed not only at the creative way people were able to have chickens in their city lots, but at their beautiful gardens these people had. I couldn't help but figure there's at least a little bit of a correlation. If there's a coop tour this year, you may be able to talk someone out of some manure. But as earlier pointed out, it does need to be well composted.

Sally

Here is a link that might be useful: A Peep at the Coops

Often a soil test advises that all that is needed is nitrogen. A generic or store brand of lawn fertilizer (around 30-0-0) provides ample N at the rate of 1 TB per medium-sized plant every six weeks. If NPK is needed, then use granular fertilizer such as 10-10-10, available very cheaply in 40-lb bags. Application rate is determined by the first number in the analysis--around 1-1/2 oz for 10-10-10 or 10-5-5. The first number in the analysis should be equal to or greater than the other two numbers. Cheap manufactured fertilizer can be just scattered and watered in. It is easier to do this 3 times a year than to properly apply Osmocote once.

I use a combination of alfalfa pellets and cheap manufactured N fertilizer.

Thank you Jeannie. I doubt that I want to leave a large pile of chicken manure sitting around for 4-6 months before I can use it. I'll have to see whether the chicken ranch has "aged" manure sitting around. If not, the alfalfa meal and leaf mulch give quite good results with not much bother.

Ingrid

Oh, wow, if you have a son with a truck your problems are solved.
Lots of good ideas here. I'll add that landscapers sometimes have quantities of chipped pruned material that you can get cheap. I used to live in a town with lumber mills and would buy truckloads of chipped nitrogen-rich alder waste that I used as mulch. We live now in a farm area--and one where farmers hang on to manure--and so now we amend and mulch with old hay that's no longer fit to be used as feed.

green waste - NOOOOOOOO! Don't go there, Kim. I guarantee that it will include lawn clippings, which WILL have been treated with Verdone or other chemical herbicide to kill broadleaf plants. Amypyralid and Clopyralid have caused scandalous problems for allotment users who have either used manure from horses fed with treated hay or green waste from local councils.....and we are seeing our plants ruined with hormonal substances which do not leach out for at least 2 seasons. Not all plants are affected but those that are show classic signs of hormone-induced distorted growth. PLEASE, do not put anything on your soil where you cannot vouch for its provenance.
I know I go off on this one but it happened to me and many other people I know who lost a whole season's crops.

oh boy!! such good ideas!!!

yes, I told said son about our mission...poop, and he is game!

any preference?? cow or horse?? WELL composted, too, right-o?? And I even know of some stables (horse) not too far!

If there is a will there is a way!

Thanks all!!

If you can find rabbit or llama, that is the best of the best of the best. Chicken is very "hot" but if you can age it it's excellent. Look for organic chicken raising so it's not loaded with antibiotics and other drugs. Horse tends to be full of weed seeds. The seeds don't die being run through the horse. Cow depends if it is from a feed lot where they load them up with antibiotics and table salt to make them as heavy as possible (cows being sold by the pound). If you can find grass-fed cow that is way better. Aging the manure also helps to kill off the weed seeds (sprout and die).

Also start composting everything that isn't diseased or a weed with seeds. Compost is not fertilizer but it makes plants very, very happy. It's also 100% FREE if you have some room for the piles.

I agree with all the above plus with a little time each day you can feed the plants the banana peel from the banana you just ate or the ends of the celery stalk or whatever. I have my little Japanese bamboo rake by the door and I go out and scratch back the mulch and put down my scraps and then cover it up with more mulch. My sister will say who gets fed now? and go out and do the same. I think she cheats and gives her favorites extra. I think it gives them a balanced diet. I tried rabbit manure once and it's very good indeed.

If you have dogs, watch the rabbit poop. Dogs ADORE rabbit pills! We have to watch to make sure they don't eat the wild rabbit pills (their smart pills) because there are parasites the dogs can contract from the rabbit poop and pass on to US. Otherwise, go for it! Kim

Horse is probably the easiest to find. :) I prefer goat/sheep as you don't have to age it and had fewer problems with weeds sprouting in the manure (which happens with horse). I would suggest going to your local feed store and putting up a notice 'manure wanted' LOL. I'm sure you'll get plenty of offers.

Go to craigslist and search for manure. People want you to come get it and will put up notices.

If your community has a Penny Saver type publication, you can also usually find "free manure" ads there, too. Neighborhood markets frequently have community bulletin boards where folks can advertise the availability of their "poop". Kim