Clyde & Ellara from DeFuniak Springs, Florida write: "We make our own mulch by using horse manure that has a high content of fine pine shaving. We try and put as many oak leaves as we can get in it, too. What could we use to help break down the shaving and would it be good for our garden?  We want to grow mustard, okra, tomatoes and onions and a few other things."

I think it can make good mulch once those pine shavings have completely broken down. Unfortunately, I don’t know of a quick way to do it. Keeping it moist and turning it often would certainly help. But it might take a year or two to break down—maybe longer.

I do know this: I was tuned into a gardening program recently and someone asked the host if horse manure and wood shavings would be useful to gardeners. The host answered by saying the high content of wood shavings would block plants from taking up nutrients. As it turned out, the caller had spread the manure/wood shavings mix on his pasture land and the grass did not respond well.

I would imagine you could use your compost sooner and more successfully if you mix in a lot of shredded leaves or other organic material, so that the shavings make up a smaller portion of the compost.

Perhaps someone who is successfully using manure and wood shavings in the garden will share his or her tips with us. When someone does, I will pass it along here.

Many thanks to Clyde and Ellara for the question. And many thanks to everyone who has contacted me to let me know where they gardening and what foods they are growing, from Karen in South Walton who is looking forward to tasting vegetables with flavor, to the firefighter in Gulf Breeze who has decided 2009 is the year to try vegetable gardening for the first time.

Let me hear from you, too.