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Manure
Greenmum
Posts: 23
Has anyone trialed the advantages of using a load of well rotted horse or farm manure, to the simpler option of the purchase of sacks of sterilised horse manure available from most garden centres?
The latter is so much easier to handle and avoids heavy barrowing. However I can see that it does not add bulky material to the ground which aids the production of a nice friable soil. Although it also does not add weed seeds and all sorts of other rubbish.
If anyone out there has any comments on this subject I would love to know before I start planning the autumn ground prep.
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I bought from CPA Horticulture last year and will do again this year.
I had 3 loads of 40 x 70litre bags last year of their horse manure. Loads of woodshavings, but a lot of the real thing too and the results in the garden this year are obvious
This year I was planning on adding more vegetable matter to the soil so I'm considering the mushroom compost as it's straw-based - but not advised if your growing acid-loving plants
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
for value, a load every time. For consistent quality and convenience, bagged.
"You pays your money and you takes your pick."
Have a look here ... scroll down to the bit about what to look for, possible contaminants etc
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=865
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I'm lucky, my stable bags them and they are available for free. So far I haven't had problems with any extra weeds as a result of a winter mulch. Might be worth looking around in your area
Last edited: 19 July 2017 18:09:30
we pick ours up from a local stable at 50p per bag and you provide your own bags so basically you can have as much as you like. Its well rotted as well, they also have a heap of less well rotted stuff which we use as a top mulch.
Thanks for the thoughts and advice but can anyone say which is better for the ground as I can equally well use either?
Possibly a stupid question, but when is the best time of year to be digging this in to your soil?
Probably a bit late to answer Greenmum's query, but contents are the same - generally speaking - whether bags or in bulk, but make sure bulk bags contain well rotted stuff if it's going directly round plants. .
Katherine - you can add it at any time really, as long as it's well rotted, but people often prefer to use it in late autumn/early winter when it can just be put down and left for the worms and weather to get it into the soil. No effort required from you other than shovelling it on
If you have lots of perennials and early bulbs, just make sure it isn't too thickly layered on - a few inches is plenty, and be careful to avoid the crown of any plants which are susceptible to rotting if covered - like paeonies for example.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I worked out that buying some bags of B &Q peat free (soil improver) was cheaper to buy in bags than to pay for costs of delivery of a cubic mtr of soil improver.
It most certainly improves the structure of my very dusty sandy soil, but I then still need more plant food with it.
The cost of a Cubic mtr in their 8 x125l bags is £56 the cost of delivery would have added another £30.
As for actual bagged farm yard manure a number of brands seem to include chicken manure which is no good for my garden which is essentially acid soil. My rhodendrons etc would not like it at all.
At present I am just trying to improve the soils structure overall and using the bags of farm yard or horse manure to treat just the more greedy shrubs etc.
'You must have some bread with it me duck!'