"crass" = "gross" frass is a polite word for poop. Since the Bacillus thuringiensis bacterium gets washed off a plants leaves duiring a rain, or when you overhead water, you would need to reapply it to provide the protection your plants might need. Since the Bt needs to be ingested, eaten, by the target insect and that target insect needs to have a certain gut chemistry to activate the bacterium, something warm blooded creatures do not have, there is no concern about you being exposed. The application of "too" much Bt might get expensive but will not be harmful, to you.

New to this forum. Enjoying all the new stuff I'm learning. Feeding Bambis alfalfa will get verrry expensive. I have both cows and horses and can't tell any difference in how hot it is or which one has more weeds, although my grandfather always swore horse manure was too hot. You can use green manure, but don't pile it up thick on anything or it will burn (it starts cooking). You can mix green in with your native soil, and it will be fine. I planted larkspur and delphenium directly into green manure and they were gorgeous and healthy. I used to plant my annuals with a scoop of composted manure and got many, many weeds immediately around the plant. I blamed the manure and started planting them with a spoonful of Osmacote. I still have lots of weeds. I realize now it was the combination of turning over the weed seeds to sunlight when I planted along with the added nutrients. It doesn't matter whether it's manure or a commercial fetilizer. I'm going back to the manure as it's free. My conclusion: Weed seeds are everywhere and when you turn them over to the sunlight and give them a boost with manure or commercial fertilizers, they go nuts.

Thanks so much for all the helpful replies. My father is fine to work with, although I don't think we'll actually be working much together, since he is home all day, which is when he likes to garden, and I won't be there until I get out of work. However, my 17 yo daughter is very keen to garden, as she is planning to major in Biology in college, with a focus on botany. So I have a helper who is voraciously reading up on gardening right now. We went to a local nursery this weekend and picked up seedlings: peppers, cucumbers, cabbage, lettuce, onions, corn, watermelon, cantalope and strawberries, as well as some herbs: dill, tarragon, mint, rosemary, thyme and chives. We didn't bother with tomatoes because my father aleady has too many tomato plants, so there'll be plenty to share. I wasn't sure how big of a plot he tilled, so I didn't get many plants of each of these. We'll probably add some zucchini and pumpkin and some other kind of squash if we have space. We went to his house yesterday, but we didn't plant - there were 3 tilled areas, but I wasn't sure which one was mine, and he wasn't home to ask. Plus, it was raining. He definitely prepped the soil already - there was definitely manure in the mix. I'll keep you posted on the progress of our garden. I'll be interested to see if any of the cabbage and lettuce survive the rabbits - my father has tried various non-lethal methods to keep the critters away, and right now, he plants each of his cabbages in an individual cage of chicken wire.

It kind of depends on your soil and how much other organic matter is there. In sandy soils with little organic matter the nutrients that manure has could be washed out of the soil if applied in the fall before any plants could utilize them. If applied in the spring, and that spring is quite wet, the same thing could happen while waiting for the seeds to germinate. Manure can be a could addition to any soil but it needs vegetative waste in the soil to hold the nutrients where they are needed by the plants. There also is no "proper" time to apply composted manure which can be added to soil anytime. Fresh manure should not be added to soils when plants are growing, however. kimmq is kimmsr