[kizza]

Hi Im new to gardening and have just dug my patch over. I want to plant in spring. i have put chicken manure on the top of it, but I need some advice on how much farmyard manure to put onto that and how and when to dig this all in. also is there any other things you can put on your patch to help the soil, and make it more fertile?

[shaun]

not to sure about chicken poo as i dont use it,but cow muck can be spread on the top off your roughly dug ground now and left there a few months,then come spring dig it in by hand but a rotavator is much better as it mixes every thing up.

[richyrich7]

Hi Kizza
As a general rule chicken poo is stronger than farmyard manure so if you don't need to improve your soil structure to much you may get away without the bulky farmyard manure. I assume that your chicken poo is the pelleted sort not fresh as this is far to strong to put straight down.
You can help the fertility of your soil by digging in any rotted down vegetable based substance or  spreading it over the ground now and digging in later. I use old potting compost from my hanging baskets, window boxes, etc.
Plan out were you want your compost heaps to go and start them as soon as you can. Can you get leaves from your local council? ours seem quite happy to dump all they can at our lottie, these will rot down over the year to give the best soil conditioner you can get.
What kind of soil have you got? find out and this will help you decide what kind/quantity of manure/conditioner to use.
Cheers

[shaun]

if you add raw chicken manure in large quantity's to a clay soil it tends to go very sticky aswell,your right richy i'm sure i read it contains 4 times as much plant food as farmyard manure so if this is added i'm sure you would end up with a realy unbalanced soil.

[muntjac]

remember to put some chuckpoop in a big barrel and add water to create liquid fertiliser great for toms.cabbage etc / put a jam jar ful in a water can and top up dont use neat . dont use on onions as it pushes mr foliage than tuber up