Allotments 4 All

have been reading up and have a quick question: which is better, cow or horse? or is it purely about what you can get hold of? am about to start ringing local riding schools and dairy farms to see if there's any available.

:D  Hi norfolklass I use horse manure because we have a stable nearby and its free ;D different people will tell you ones better than the other but if I had  to choose I would go along with horses because they get looked after in the stables and you never know what they really feed cows on? :o Don't forget don't dig it in where you are planting roots. :) ;) :D ;D :-*

It doesn't matter *too* much as it really depends on what you can get hold of.

But if you have a choice, choose cow's manure. cows have more than one stomach so if there's any weed seeds in the food they eat, they are much more likely to die than if it passed through the single stomach of a horse.

thanks for the advice. I've just spoken to someone at my local stables and they said I'm more than welcome to come and help myself, so that's next weekend taken care of!

I'm about to start double digging and want to dig the manure in to the bottom of the trenches. I was thinking roughly about a forkful of manure per spade width of trench... does that sound about right or should I put lots more in as it won't get double dug again?!?

I was also planning to double dig all the beds as I'm starting from scratch, so does that mean I won't be able to grow any roots for a season? or will it be too deep to bother them?

so many questions!

:D Just don't manure the part your keeping for roots I take it  you have a plan a cunning plan.   ;D ;D ;D ;D :-* :-*

got my manure! spent a loverly Saturday morning down at the stables in the crispy frosty air shovelling it into bags. had a bit of a hair-raising journey home though (I hadn't appreciated quite how heavy the manure was, or how many bags I'd managed to cram into the boot!) and as I was happily tootling along at about 50mph I realised that the steering on my car had gone :o had a bit of a panic thinking that something serious had gone wrong with my car as the track to and from the stables was FULL of potholes but then realised that it was because my car's nose was sticking up in the air from all the weight in the back ::)

I lugged all the bags onto my plot and emptied them into the corner (next to my newly made leaf mould bin) and realised that it's actually starting to look like an allotment plot now, rather than just a bit of old waste ground! and the manure is fab, well worth all the hard work: all dark and crumbly and full of worms, in fact a couple of neighbours came over and admired it ;D

lol norfolklass, you must be well chuffed with yourself, bet your neighbours will be WELL impressed ;D

We have acquiantances who keep chickens... OH ran into them (not literally) while out buying the tree... and they said there muck heap had built up again so guess what I will be doing the week before Christmas!
::)

Quote from: saddad on December 11, 2006, 17:49:15
We have acquiantances who keep chickens... OH ran into them (not literally) while out buying the tree... and they said there muck heap had built up again so guess what I will be doing the week before Christmas!
::)

Spreading good tidings.........................?! ;D

I am fortunate that my daughter has a horse. I know what Norfolklass means. I recently went to where they stable Phoebe to get some manure (from the rotted pile :)) son-in-law filled 7 bags and said... we had better stop there. The weight certainly put the rear end of my mondeo estate down. Son-in-law was kind enough to follow me home and unload the bags for me... quite heavy. The only downside was that Elsa my King Charles was going mad sniffing all round "her" area of the car when she next went in it :)