Thanks for the link. I will definitely look into neem oil. Sorry I took so long to reply. After I did that strenuous project I went onto another one...TAXES! lol totally drained me in more ways than one. I've grown Golden Bantam before. It's very small. Funny there's a 3 Stooges episode where Curly was biting on the cuckoo clock's weights and after Moe confronts him he say he thought it was Golden Bantam which is about the same size.

In my zone 9b, I am late for planting melons unless I want them to suffer through the summer heat , bugs and foliar disease. Adding cow manure compost is a good idea, if you want to try planting melons at this time, just plant a few as a trial and see how you do. You can plant them again around August for a fall crop. Silvia

I'm so glad to hear that you were able to amend your soil and get everything growing well! What an accomplishment!

Actually, in this climate, manure is not very rich in anything at all other than OM. Because time does such a good job of reducing the drug and bacterial dangers, I let the stuff sit for perhaps five or so months before using it. At that point there's very little N; most of it has gone off into the atmosphere. If I do use any of the un-aged stuff, it's for flowers, not edibles. Two yards twice a year seems to work for keeping the beds full. I go through roughly four inches of it yearly and use it only as a top dressing. I don't till, but that doesn't mean the growing layer is pure manure. Pulling mixes things somewhat, and there's also trowel work wherever any plant gets put into the ground, but it's definitely a thick smothering cover. Not quite as lazy as Ruth Stout, but getting there... There are NO weeds when you smother like that and are stingy with the watering, both drip and rainfall. Again that's local conditions. YMMV