Oh, Poop (or, what good manure will do for you)

I was out in the garden training the cucumbers up their trellis strings when I noticed a distinct difference between plants at one end of the bed and the other. I think, though I'm not 100% certain, that the area with the healthy, green cucumbers is where I dug in some manure this spring when I moved the old trash bin shed to its new location; the less healthy plants are further up in the bed where I didn't mix in manure, since I already had plants growing there and wasn't sure the manure was composted enough not to burn them. (Guess I should take better notes, but that's my best recollection.) Interesting, eh? I'm going to have to get some composted manure and treat the rest of the bed to see if I can get the smaller plants caught up to their larger companions. My other garden beds also could use some help. The ones where I had the peas did get some manure when I pulled out the peas and prepared them for beans and squash, but the others didn't get any, and seem to be suffering by comparison.

It's not that I don't enrich the soil -- I dug in compost from my compost bins last Fall. It's just that the compost is not nearly as good as manure, apparently.