hi when i was but a boy i worked saturday mornings up the big hall vege garden in the village and oneday the old gardener had us boys barrow loads of farmyard manure and make a raised bed abouut 8 feet across and 20 foot long about 4 foot high we jammed this steaming stuff down tight then put put a layer of soil on top and up the sides,we asked the old boy why and he said it wouldkeep warm for ages and get things off to a early start , this just came back to me the other day.
so i was wondering what if i dug out the green house and made a pit filled it with pigs muck then put soil back would it raise soil temp through the winter enough to make it worth the effort .i know how warm a muck heap heap can get cause on really cold days i seen old boys open up a muck heap and stand in s-it to warm there feet up
hope they kept their wellies on ;D
we did this in spring but outside in an open bed, covered with a plastic cover, we got very early carrots, radish and lettuce, just replaced the plastic with fleece once the weather warmed up :)
don't see why it wouldn't work in a greenhouse
maybe someone can answer this - is it safe to use pig manure? They may have been fed anything. And they have parasites and diseases similar to our own (I think)
Pig manure is good stuff it is higher in nutrients than most other animal manures.
The downside to it is that if it is straight pig manure it is wet and hard to handle, similar to cow manure .If mixed with straw or bedding its fine ..Rots down really well.
The best manure to heat up well and it has one of the highest nutrients is rabbit/guinea pig! I use guinea pig as we have about 70 piggies in our rescue and we have people waiting up the lotties for us to take it up there !!
Most show rabbit /guinea pig breeders are only to pleased to let you have it, i fill my bean trench with it and have wonderful beans with very few weeds :)
Im thinking of trying a hot bed this winter, does anyone have any tips ???
flowerofshona that is good to know, our neighbour breeds rabbits! I want to try making a hotbed too to grow some melons.