I noticed how red your soil is. You are right to be looking for manure. There is a horse farm out here in my community that sells composted horse manure pretty cheap and also there is the casino compost and mulch facility much closer to you. I have heard good things about their compost and I have got some of their mulch. I am doing the Back To Eden method for the garden, basically sheet mulch with cardboard or newspaper and cover with as much chipper mulch as you can get up to 4 inches first year, then never till that in, just add compost or manure on top, the rain washes it into the soil, pull back the mulch and plant IN THE SOIL, very important not to plant in the mulch by mistake and very important to never till it in. It will begin to form mycorrizal network the first year and over time you will have deep black rich soil.
I have used Fedco, low prices but I had moderate to low germination on too much stuff, Johnny's is good and I love Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Victory Seeds and Bountiful Gardens. I planted comfrey here in 2003 in one spot only, it has gotten huge over the years and the last time I had the garden plowed (before this new mulch system) I think some roots got drug to the other corner of the garden as I soon after had new comfrey pop up. It is so easy to grow from just a piece of root, amazing plant on all counts. How much did you give for your starts?
I have huge plans but no monies so I do what I can each year. Planning a fruit orchard on the hill above the garden, expand the garden a little more each year, love growing gourds and a huge variety of veggies, hope to do some seed saving this year via hand isolation and pollination of select varieties, try to stay with only heirloom seed but every now and then I see something hybrid I just can't resist, my favorite from a couple of years ago was winterbor kale, that stuff was amazing, especially for overwintering. And hope to get these things called flower sprouts from Johnny's this year. They are a cross of brussel sprouts and kale. My daughter had bought some for me at the farmer's market last winter, they were so tasty, I loved them and all she knew was the guy said they were called flowers. I figured he had something cross and this was the result and he was selling this volunteer odd thing. Then I ran across them in Johnny's catalog. So tickled to find them.
A local permie group sounds like it could be fun. I have potential for some ponds and swales but no equipment to make it happen. I do plan on building a cob/strawbale hybrid house eventually so who knows, maybe get some earthwork done then.
