Author Topic: Horse Manure! What Option is Best?  (Read 3470 times)

Dinu

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Horse Manure! What Option is Best?
« on: October 17, 2014, 12:51:47 »
So I have now got a couple of tons of rotted horse manure and seven empty beds, 3 of which are raised and recently built. After reading various articles and posts I am lost as to what is the best way forward. So here are the options and I would be grateful if you could provide your opinions.

1. Turn the soil over and place the manure on top and leave it over the winter
2. Place the manure on top of the beds and dig it over so the soil and the manure are well mixed
3. Place wet newspaper over the soil and place the manure on top and leave the worms to do the digging
4. Place the manure on top and use the Rotavator on the the beds and manure

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks

Tee Gee

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Re: Horse Manure! What Option is Best?
« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2014, 14:02:38 »
In my opinion 'none of the above'

I do it this way:

http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Soil-Preparation/soil%20preparation%20ss.swf


Edit; Forgot to mention this is the least messy way (I don't like standing on it if it is laid first) plus it gets it  to where I want it!
« Last Edit: October 17, 2014, 14:06:33 by Tee Gee »

granny garden

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Re: Horse Manure! What Option is Best?
« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2014, 16:00:54 »
Don't wish to offend, but that seems an awful lot of digging!

I have a back problem, so find digging difficult. I have lots of well rotted [3 years +] horse manure, they are kept on a rape straw bed, it rots down very quickly, the people that supply it say 6 months. I just put a 4" to 6" layer & leave the winter weather & worms to do the rest.

Just wondered Tee Gee, what are your thoughts on no dig system?

Each to their own, but like to hear other peoples ideas & ways.  :sunny:

antipodes

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Re: Horse Manure! What Option is Best?
« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2014, 16:02:14 »
I do none of the above :-)
I simply spread the manure over the top, leave it during the cold period then dig it in slowly as I plant. If I can I lay cardboard over the top to stop weed formation, the worms do most of the work for you.
2012 - Snow in February, non-stop rain till July. Blight and rot are rife. Thieving voles cause strife. But first runner beans and lots of greens. Follow an English allotment in urban France: http://roos-and-camembert.blogspot.com

Tee Gee

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Re: Horse Manure! What Option is Best?
« Reply #4 on: October 17, 2014, 16:50:14 »
Quote
Just wondered Tee Gee, what are your thoughts on no dig system?

Just don't believe in it!

I think one spit deep digging is much better as it lets air into the soil, it seems to keep the soil better drained, and there is more humus in the soil 8"-9" down as opposed to just the first 2" or3" which helps with the crop rotation, that is: it  is good for ALL root systems not just root vegetables.

The chap in the next plot to me uses the 'no dig' system and  grows more or less the same varieties as me  but when it comes to harvest time it is like chalk and cheese as I find my stuff is far superior in both size and quality to his!

I go back to my old mentor Arthur Billet ( anyone remember him?) who's catchphrase was; 'The Secret is in the Soil' meaning look after the soil and the rest will look after itself.

I agree totally because I find that with the proper preparation in the Autumn I seem to have less watering and weeding (my two pet hates) to do during the growing seen relative to the others on the plots.

The there were my other idols namely;  Percy Thrower and Geoff Smith who were the "Salt of the Earth" these guys have forgotten more than Monty ,Joe and the rest of them have ever learned.

Alan Titmarsh knows a bit as his guru was Geoff Smith who prepared the RHS gardens at Harlow Carr long before the RHS took it over. (Alan was his apprentice I do believe)

So as I have followed their advice for the last forty plus years and it has done me quite well I think I will carry on with that method as long as I can!

Does that answer your question?



BTW sorry to here that you have a bad back I used to have but had an operation and it cured it!

What I found prior to the operation was that preparing the plots prior to winter was easier on the back.

The soil never seemed to be wet and heavy then as it can be after the winter weather.

Plus I found I was a bit more supple during the autumn month than I was in Spring so I could cope with the bad back as the weather tended to be a bit warmer.


This year I had hoped to have all my digging done by the end of October but we are waiting on some more 'muck' coming onto the site so that I can get finished, as it is I am about 75% dug up to press.

I reckon a good week after the muck arrives I will be able to go into hibernation for two or three months knowing that I have nothing to do until around April /May time!

So now you know...Tg

Silverleaf

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Re: Horse Manure! What Option is Best?
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2014, 03:23:47 »
If I didn't use the no dig method I wouldn't be able to garden at all, digging is way beyond me and even on a good day I can't weed for very long. Too much pain from fibromyalgia if I do anything too physical (walking seems fine though as long as I don't go mad). Horrible heavy clay doesn't help at all.

My raised beds are about a foot deep and filled mostly with peat-free compost and horse manure. Hopefully I can start making my own compost too next year, but with a rabbit we don't have much in the way of veggie scraps usually! I figure if I keep topping them up they'll eventually enrich the soil underneath too.

galina

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Re: Horse Manure! What Option is Best?
« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2014, 08:52:17 »
If I didn't use the no dig method I wouldn't be able to garden at all, digging is way beyond me and even on a good day I can't weed for very long. Too much pain from fibromyalgia if I do anything too physical (walking seems fine though as long as I don't go mad). Horrible heavy clay doesn't help at all.

My raised beds are about a foot deep and filled mostly with peat-free compost and horse manure. Hopefully I can start making my own compost too next year, but with a rabbit we don't have much in the way of veggie scraps usually! I figure if I keep topping them up they'll eventually enrich the soil underneath too.
Silverleaf,  Can you compost and use the waste from your rabbit too?   I remember reading that the waste from all vegetarian animals is ok for the garden, same as cow and horse poo.  And the bedding straw would also help  with heavy soil. 

There have been plenty of experiments done by HDRA/Garden Organic to show that no-dig works fine. 

TG you are a very good and experienced gardener whatever you do, and that shows in comparison with your neighbour.  If you both used the same system, you would still come out top just for that reason.

Leaves are very good at lightening soil structure too.  Not much nutrients, but plenty of humus for lightening and water holding.  Avoid oak (unless you can compost them for a couple of years), most others can be layered on top of a bed and will rot quite fast.  Although it is easy enough to compost them and use that a year later.  Leaves mixed with grass mowings are especially good and will rot much faster than leaves on their own.   If you are worried that a bed hasn't fully rotted down/mixed by worm action, you can always make use of Mr Yeoman's method:  Use a crowbar and rotate to make a hole (much easier than digging) and fill with good compost, then transplant into that.  By the time the roots of the transplant have run out of good compost, the plants can cope with  rough and ready soil.  The classic bean trench for runner beans is actually a rough, layered bed that has been topped with a bit of good soil.  The only vegetables that need well-prepared loose and even soil are those that are sown directly, like carrots and parsnips.

Like TG I prefer to dig because this is an easy way of lightening our clay which tends to set like concrete (and this is also necessary to remove bindweed roots), but at this time of year I also spread layers of grass and leaves on top of dug soil.  These are gone quite quickly and any remnants are buried by a  final loosening of the soil before planting.   If I could not dig, I would use 'lasagna beds' like you Silverleaf. 

Silverleaf

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Re: Horse Manure! What Option is Best?
« Reply #7 on: October 18, 2014, 11:17:31 »
I do keep meaning to use rabbit bedding on the garden, but then I forget every time I clean him out. I only have the one tiny little rabbit (see profile pic) so he doesn't produce that much in terms of droppings, but he can wee for England! ;) His litter box is shavings with hay, but he tends to eat all the hay before/as he uses the box. He doesn't need bedding anywhere else as he mostly always uses the box, so I just use newspaper on the cage floor in case he takes it into his head to go somewhere else.

Honestly though, you wouldn't believe how much that rabbit will eat for his size. He's about 1.2kg so really small, and he can get through two huge handfuls of long grass and dandelions and herbs and other plants in a couple of hours, plus hay, and then still pretend he's dying of hunger when it comes to his evening pellet meal (he's not, he's in great condition).

I started training him to stand up on his hind legs for food in that cute bunny "looking around" pose this morning, using his breakfast pellets as rewards. He's already quite good at coming short distances when you call him, and he learned that without food and without really being taught, just me calling him when he was already coming to me for head strokes. Clever bunny! I might try him with a clicker and see how he responds.

Now you've started me off about my rabbit! Distraction! ;)

Anyway, soil conditioners. Leaves sound like a great idea, I'll have to try that too.

 

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