Worm castings are very rich fertilizer and can enrich your soil tremendously. You can use it on any plant in your garden, and even your houseplants. Don't use a lot on plants such as cacti though, they don't need a lot of food.

Worm tea comes from a worm bin, or worm farm. As your worms eat the food you provide, the juices drip into a collection plate over time. You can take those drippings, dilute at a ratio of 2 parts water, one part tea, shake well, and spray on your garden as a fertilizer mix.

However, with these 3 poopular fertilizer options, you MUST make sure it's completely dry, or the acidic content will burn the roots of your plants and kill them.

A quick way to dry them is to mix wood sawdust in with them. At least 25% and preferably up to about 40%. The sawdust is good fertilizer also, and it helps cut down on the smell of the manure it that bothers you, or you have neighbors who would object.

If sawdust isn't an option, then it will take several weeks to several months for the manure to be dry enough to use in a garden, unless your spreading it and letting it dry out over the winter.

The chicken poop takes a couple of weeks to dry out enough to use.

Now, all 3 of these can be found at farms, or ranches, and usually, they will have a big pile of manure that you can take for free, but get in touch with them and ask them first.

With my new raised beds, I put down the following layers:

Weed cloth

Cardboard, which keeps the weed cloth from being torn up when I mix the pile

old wood mulch, at least one year old

horse manure, at least a month old or older

wood ashes

coffee grounds and crushed egg shells

another layer of old wood mulch

Then I take either the shovel or the garden claw and mix this up really good. This is also good cardiovascular exercise.....

This mix then sets for at least a month before I plant anything in it, and I usually turn it at least once a week during that time. I prefer to make this mix before winter, so that it has all winter to set up and decay.

During the growing season, I spread more coffee and tea grounds, crushed egg shells, and compost thru out the garden, and earth worm castings when I have enough.

In the fall, when the plants die back, I turn the beds again, and add more horse manure, etc.... if needed.

The beds that have perennial plants don't get turned completely, but I turn the soil around the plants if it won't hurt the root system.