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2022 What compost are you using this year thread?!

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Harry:

--- Quote from: JanG on April 12, 2023, 06:54:23 ---It sounds as though your loads of horse manure are going to be the way you can avoid expense as in future years it will give you your mulch without spending anything. So I would store as much of it as you can.
You’re very lucky that you have soil with a good texture but that doesn’t stop it being depleted of nutrients by successive crops. Your horse manure will largely see to that but it’s a good idea to check it for nasty herbicides by trying a few bean seeds in it to make sure they grow healthily.
You will need to decide whether you want to grow organically and if you do then chicken manure pellets (if needed) will definitely be preferable to Growmore. Nettle or comfrey tea though will give you a free boost, without possibly needing either bought fertiliser.

--- End quote ---
Thanks.
I've put out the word that I'd like to swap some of my fresh horse poo for pretty much anything, such as green waste or seeds, and so far I've traded some up for straw mixed older stuff. I realise that making my own compost is a longer term exercise and I've no aversion to using chemicals in the mean time, except perhaps the cost, where I'm trying really hard to be frugal. I already have a good source of green food waste and I'm lining up sources of good muck and wood chippings.

I always ask the sources of muck about herbicides like Grazon, but I really need to start testing for it. I wonder how common a problem it really is.

I'm still chuckling to myself at the much touted, no dig, idea of a 3 inch layer of compost costing typically 9p a litre or £3 per sq metre per year. That's far, far more than I'd want to spend.

I saw that Charles Dowding, for all his organised industrial scale composting, still buys in 2/3 of his compost.

BarriedaleNick:

--- Quote from: Harry on April 12, 2023, 09:19:58 ---I'm still chuckling to myself at the much touted, no dig, idea of a 3 inch layer of compost costing typically 9p a litre or £3 per sq metre per year. That's far, far more than I'd want to spend.
I saw that Charles Dowding, for all his organised industrial scale composting, still buys in 2/3 of his compost.

--- End quote ---

I have no idea if he buys it in or not but he recommends 3cm a year after the first year, not 3 inches. Personally this is easily doable with rotted manure and the contents of the compost bins..

Paulh:
But, dahlings, just where else would one rather find ones compost than these:

"Today, however, posh poop for the garden is more fashionable than ever. Compost made headlines this week when it was discovered that the Land Gardeners — Henrietta Courtauld and Bridget Elworthy — whose fresh flowers harvested from the original walled gardens at Wardington Manor in Oxfordshire (Elworthy’s home) are much coveted in London and the home counties — are selling Climate Compost Inoculum at £20 for a 1.5kg bag. The compost, abundant in naturally occurring soil microbes, comes from their gardens and the Althorp estate, where Diana, Princess of Wales grew up, in west Northamptonshire. Although the price tag is high, at least this mode for manure comes from a good place, so to speak. It is more about its environmental credentials than its designer ones.

Making manure waves on the other side of the Atlantic is Flamingo Estate’s The Good nuts. This organic compost, harvested near Los Angeles, sells for £60 for a 4kg bag. After appearing in a gift guide for Gwyneth Paltrow’s company Goop, it sold out over Christmas and has a waiting list. Flamingo Estate’s owner, Richard Christiansen, used to run a creative agency in New York where he worked with Kyle Minogue and numerous high-end fashion clients. If anyone knows how to turn dung to dollars, he does."

(From The Times)

Obelixx:
If your allotment hasn't been used for a couple of years it has effectively been lying fallow which used to be one of the rotation years for farmland before industrialisation, intensive growing and chemical based fertilisers became the norm after WW2.

If you feel the soil texture is good then go ahead and clear weeds to a compost heap and plant but bear in mind the need to rotate crops to avoid the build up pests and diseases and also depletion of nutrients.   Mulching is always a good idea if you have enough composted material available and your horse poo is black gold so hang onto as much as you can and let it break down for a year or two before using as a mulch or feed.

You can consult the RHS website, Garden Organic or Tee Gee's almanac for crop rotation and soil prep info.

The only fertiliser I buy is a special liquid feed for citrus plants and bags of pelleted chicken manure.   Eveyting else comes off our compost heaps and, when I can get it, local horse poo.

Tee Gee:
Thanks for the plug Obelixx

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