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| I bought a bag of organic bone meal (see picture) and sprinkled small amounts of it throughout my vegetable garden. I also have two miniature pinschers, and they went berserk. I have a green "plastic mesh" fence around my garden that has been successful to keep the dogs from eating my tomatoes... but this bone meal had them trying to climb the fence and dig under.
Twice I caught them in the garden eating dirt/bone meal and had to put landscape timbers along the bottom edge where they had found room to crawl under. now that I think about it: dogs... bones.... bone meal. I see the attraction. I don't want to use this stuff anymore, my question is, can I bury the bone meal in my compost pile without the dogs smelling it. My compost pile is about 4x4x4 and fairly new. My mix hasn't been "optimal" because it I don't get steam... It's mostly grass and oak leaves (lot's of oak leaves). The center of the compost is warm/hot, but it still breaks down given enough time.
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Here is a link that might be useful: website for bone meal
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by gardenfanatic MO zone5b (My Page) on Mon, Apr 9, 12 at 20:12
| My dog has never given a rat's you know what about bone meal, until I got the kind you have. She dug up every plant I planted with it. I looked at the label, and it's ground up pig bones. That's why it's so attractive to them - they think it's a pork roast. If the compost pile is in the backyard, they might still be able to smell it. Now I only use my "pork roast" bone meal in the front yard, where my dog doesn't have access. If that's an option for you, maybe you could do that. Deanna |
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| The lack of steam during digestion does not mean your compost is not "optimal", just that it is not hot enough to produce some steam. Compost happens, as indicated by the fact that yours is warm to hot and does "break down", get digestged, in time. People have added bone meal, and rock dusts, to their compost piles for years, but most studies I've seen indicate there is not that much benefit. Spreading bone meal in the garden can be more problematic then beneficial, as you discovered, unless the meal is buried quite deep. Given the samll benefit from bone meal I'm not sure I wouild spend the money for the stuff today. |
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| I had read and seen some good info regarding bone meal (gardenweb forums and youtube videos)... but I never imagined the dogs reacting this way. It is way too much of a pain to deal with. Maybe it is just this one particular brand as "gardenfanatic" said, but I think I am scarred for life against this product. We are due to to have some light rain all weekend, I think I will scatter it across my front yard and hope the rain soaks it into the ground. either that or I'm going to have every; cat, dog, raccoon, skunk and coyote in the county in my yard :) |
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- Posted by toxcrusadr (My Page) on Tue, Apr 10, 12 at 18:04
| Well scotty, that's a mess! Gosh. I can just hear em going "Pork roooooast!" Dogs can smell a flea fart at 10,000 meters, so it's anyone's guess whether they would pick up the scent in the compost. I would suggest adding a SMALL amount every few days (maybe when you add new materials and stirring it in. Eventually you'll get rid of the bag. It certainly won't hurt the compost any. Or, you could stash it away and forget it until winter when the dogs aren't outside much? |
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