successful pumpkin question

[gunnerbee]

i have been given a plot at the local farm, i feel sooo lucky, but i wanted to prepare a pumpkin bed for may/june time and i have a heap of manure from last year.
What i wanted to do was put some fresh manure under the well rotted stuff and pack it up with used straw and then cover with black plastic till may??

would this work??

many thanks

[gunnerbee]

[calendula]

should work brilliantly - like a hot bed (be prepared for it to smoulder if it gets really hot), not sure why you need the black plastic though

[dtw]

To stop the straw blowing away?
or prevent any weeds from growing.

[gunnerbee]

prevent the weeds of course, hopefully they wont grow though anyway but id like to be extra sure

[saddad]

I look forward to seeing the results... try a crop of radish the week before you want to sow/plant out the pumpkins... if they disappear as quick as they germinate get some slug traps or pellets rather than loose your pumpkins. Look forward to piccies of the bed and the results!
8)

[gunnerbee]

cheers, im armed and ready for those little critters!!

[calendula]

prevent the weeds of course, hopefully they wont grow though anyway but id like to be extra sure

manure will come with its own colony of weed seeds that I doubt black poly will prevent, they wouldn't germinate at this time of year anyway but they'll soon be thinking about it  ;D