Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Frugal Living => Topic started by: TREGRAHOW on March 30, 2017, 19:36
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I have access to large amounts of dry, almost powdered, pure horse manure (no straw, feed, weeds, soil etc...), from an indoor horse walker. So far I've taken over 30 plastic 100l dustbins full down to my plot. I'll cover it until I can mix it with some browns. I also have access to large amounts of sawdust from untreated pine planks. Can I simply mix them at a sensible ratio and hopefully get compost? These materials; especially the manure, seemed simply too good to refuse. Please tell me I'm not wasting my time and effort.
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You are not wasting your time or effort!
I have never had "powdered" horse manure, but usually mixed with straw and bedding, then rotted down before use.
Using that model, adding sawdust to the dry manure, soaking it well and covering to rot off the sawdust should produce useful compost. If you have greens such as kitchen waste, soft green weeds or lawn mowings it would be even better
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The horse walker consists of two different sized circular steel cages one inside the other. Indoors, there is no moisture and whilst being exercised the horses do what comes naturally so four steel shoes per horse soon break the "cobs" down, hence the "powdered" manure.
I have a garden gate leading directly onto a park where I collect grass clippings as and when I need after the tractor mower has been around. I also collect about 4 or 5cwt of fallen leaves which I tackle with my petrol mower. So I should be sorted for compost shouldn't I? All I need now is the knowledge to combine this glut of materials then perhaps I will be.
All suggestions gratefully received.
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The horse walker consists of two different sized circular steel cages one inside the other. Indoors, there is no moisture and whilst being exercised the horses do what comes naturally so four steel shoes per horse soon break the "cobs" down, hence the "powdered" manure.
I have a garden gate leading directly onto a park where I collect grass clippings as and when I need after the tractor mower has been around. I also collect about 4 or 5cwt of fallen leaves which I tackle with my petrol mower. So I should be sorted for compost shouldn't I? All I need now is the knowledge to combine this glut of materials then perhaps I will be.
All suggestions gratefully received.
WOW! Lucky you is all I can say.
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Either just mix it all up together & water well or add 1 shallow layer after another, scrumpled up paper, card, all your fruit & veg peelings all add to the mix & in next to no time you'll have what is known as black gold.
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I like that. All I need now is the energy to do the work. Most YouTube clips seem to suggest I have to turn the mix thoroughly at fairly frequent intervals. My lower back will dictate how often that happens. Thanks so far and please continue to let me have your ideas. They are much appreciated.
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I'm not one for turning compost, mixed at the start, or layered as you go - left to its own devices it will still rot by the time you want to use it.
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it takes nitrogen to break down sawdust. I have had fresh manure about a year ago and that has shrunk by half, so will go on this year.
I would mix with the grass and leave, but keep an eye out for rats which like it warm
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I turn mine as & when I've got the energy, inclination or time. Sometimes like mum it just sits. The beauty of having 3 or more bins side by side is you can use 1 bin to fill, then gradually move the contents along until it is finished, you can add fresh manure at the time of turning to help kick start the process again or not depends if you have any. It all happens with or without your help just takes longer
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I turn mine as & when I've got the energy, inclination or time. Sometimes like mum it just sits. The beauty of having 3 or more bins side by side is you can use 1 bin to fill, then gradually move the contents along until it is finished, you can add fresh manure at the time of turning to help kick start the process again or not depends if you have any. It all happens with or without your help just takes longer
I do likewise but have no hard and fast rules
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I have three boxes/bins each 4' x 4' x 4' but, they have all been topped up by the huge amount of manure I was able to get. I'm thinking my best bet now is to dig a few shallow, grave-sized trenches and after a thick layer of old newspapers in the bottom spread thin layers of manure, sawdust, shredded vegetable scraps, shredded leaves and shredded newspaper until the mound is about three feet high. Perhaps then I'll cover with black porous material made for laying under woodchip paths. The more I write this the better it sounds. I think the ideas I've been given so far will produce a result.
One final rush of blood to the head is to layer the spent stalks of flowers from a local florist into the mound in order to leave air gaps and prevent the layers from merging into a soggy mess.
Any more thoughts you have will still be considered. I'm here to learn. Thanks so far.
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Look at lasagne beds on google or on here, very much what you are suggesting, I do a simple version for my squashes each year & an even simpler one for my brassicas. The squash bed becomes the potato bed the next year with more manure if I can get it
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My compost bin is full of grass clippings at the moment, I have access to plenty of horse manure, so after reading this l'll get a barrow full and add in to the mix.
Cheers
Aled
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My compost bin is full of grass clippings at the moment, I have access to plenty of horse manure, so after reading this l'll get a barrow full and add in to the mix.
Cheers
Aled
I find shredded paper useful to mix with grass clippings ... stops it becoming soggy
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Thanks for that I've got a shredder here in my office and i'll empty it now.
Cheers
Aled
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Thanks for that I've got a shredder here in my office and i'll empty it now.
Cheers
Aled
If you have a ready source, you're made!! I get sacks of it from where I used to work, thanks to a friend
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Chop up your toilet roll tubes too.
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Will do!
Cheers
Aled
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Added a pile of horse manure and shredded cardboard yesterday!
Cheers
Aled
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Best laid plans et al. Dug a trench about 15" deep and lined it with damp newspaper. Layered powdered horse manure and sawdust plus shredded vegetable trimmings and peelings and shredded newspapers. Sounds good eh? Wrong! Been informed that just prior to my taking three very large bags of sawdust away one of the operators had switched the extractor from the machine cutting plywood and chipboard to deposit in the same bags as the clean material from the other saws. So I have a mound about 30" high that has chipboard and plywood sawdust in it.
I suppose my best bet is to cover that mound and leave it for a year or so before breaking into it and mixing it with cleaner stuff. Will 12 months be long enough to start breaking down the adhesives and resins from plywood and chipboard?
I think I'll find another, cleaner source of sawdust/shavings.
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Sawdust doesn't rot readily. Stuff that sits around for ages gets filed in a bin of its own ready to be used for topping up purposes once it's got going
I don't mix grass mowings in with my compost. I do like to put that In a builders rubble sack on its own. It rots down like mad
I just got offered my neighbour's compost bins now they have built some timber whoppers. I fear they might ask for em back once they find that big ain't necessarily beautiful 😎
I opened one of my full bins yesters and found it reduced to dust by ants. ✔️ I chucked in a load of overgrown courgettes as a reward for their hard work 🙂