Topic: New Allotment new Neighbour

[Digeroo]

I have an extra 1/4 allotment and the neighbour is a white horse.  Can any one help me is it going to eat things?   Do horses eat pea and bean plants?   I have yet to see it put its head over the electric fence but.....

[grannyjanny]

I can't help re the horse but out of interest how big is your quarter allotment?

[Digeroo]

it is 27 size 8 boots down one side and 26 size 8 boots down the other and  36 size 8 boots across the middle.  My boots are just over 12 inches.  Which I think is about 1/3 of a standard size plot.

It is covered in a six inch layer of mud mixed with poo.  Since everyone feed the pig especially the hog who was very greedy, it has the accumulated remains of all the waste veg from most of the allotments.  It is very slippery and digging it is a nightmare.

[grannyjanny]

You are lucky. Ours is a half plot, 56'x18' but then I suppose we are lucky to have that.

[Old bird]

Love it!!! My sort of measurements!!

I always cannot find a tape measure when I need one!!!

Old Bird

Oh and by the way the horse would love sweet juicy pea tops and most other "tops" of vegetables - They are generally not too fussy!

O B  ;D

[Digeroo]

I am very pleased with it.  I have a very old wind up cloth measure tape somewhere, but I think I would be too worried about dangling it in the slime. 
Your 56x18 is more or less the same size.

[Kea]

It will eat anything pretty much anything that it can stretch over the fence to reach.....though horses tend to not like prickly things so maybe a row of raspberries along the fence?

The colour of the horse doesn't tend to make a lot of difference just be pleased it's a horse not a goat!

[Old bird]

Kea,

I agree with the prickly type things but here on Exmoor we have Exmoor ponies living wild on the hill and they are specifically on the land to keep down the gorse!

I have seen horse poo with gorse prickles still visible!!!!

Old B ird :o

[Kea]

I think 'wild' horses are a bit tougher generally than the more pampered ones.

[chriscross1966]

An opportunity to grow all the sloes you'll ever need perhaps?...pus put yourself a gate in it and all the manure you can carry off under cover of darkness in exchange for the odd carrot.....
[/glass-half-full]

chrisc

[Ian Pearson]

I can imagine digging would be a nightmare, but why dig? A pig has done it for you. The 6" layer of mud mixed with muck (sorry I refuse to say p**) will turn in to a 6" layer of topsoil mixed with rotted muck if left alone 'till mid Spring, when it will probably just need a rake over to prepare it. On the other hand, you could walk all over it, compacting the mud, in which case you will have to dig it.

If the ground has never been cultivated, or the subsoil is really compacted, you could double dig once and for all, but the deep soil needs to be just right so it breaks up easily. Wait till it dries out in Spring, or better still, I'd leave it till next autumn before double digging.

No-dig growing really does work very well once it is running, but you must NEVER stand on the soil, especially when it is wet.

[Digeroo]

We have free manure already and the only thing between the plot and the horse is an electric fence so I can just step over it.

I have been very careful about not standing on the wet soil and have put in a cross of paths across the middle in each direction and dug off the soil and and I walk on the compacted stuff below.  It is very compacted and more or less sub soil.

I am double digging the bean trenches and probably the sweet corn bed and incorporating manure.   I have lots of different beans to try. 

My experience of pig mud is that it sets like concrete.  So if I do not manage to break it up while it is still wet there will be no raking it over, it becomes a pick axe job.  I also feel that 6 inches is a bit minimal soil depth, I rather like a whole spade depth.

I like the prickly idea, I think that gooseberries would be a perfect solution.  I am also growing goji and they seem to be prickly.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Everything depends on the soil. If it's clay, you're probably right about concrete. If it's sand, it should be OK.

[Vinlander]

I am stuck with clay too - it has its good points though, and it's amazing how quickly it will go crumbly once it's broken up and exposed to the elements. Mulching with compost will make sure it doesn't revert.

Lime can help with extreme stickiness, and gypsum is better still www.humeseeds.com/gypsum.htm - and in surprisingly reasonable quantities.

Gypsum also traps the nitrogen from any manure that is decomposing too fast and is recommended to counter the effects of salt - ie. solves both problems coming from soil being used as an animal toilet.

It's worth raising some beds - especially if you can dig useful soil out of the paths and fill the trench with woodchip or short prunings and leaves or anything free that rots down.

If the pig has left that much nitrogen it might even be worth throwing stacks of newspapers in the trench/path to soak it up and make use of it - though if it's really damp they can turn into a kind of slurry unless there are enough woody, leafy or strawy bits in there to give it body.

Newspapers can be forked out and composted at a push, but don't put anything else in a trench that can't be dug out with a spade. Pebbles, scrap iron and plastic rubbish are a particularly nasty combination - I speak from experience of moving somebody else's path.

Good luck, and keep positive - the natural fertility of mud will eventually pay off.