Hello ,
I have just dug up my allotment , scattered some horse manure all over & was thinking of covering it all up with a mix of council compost & leaf mould ;Then cover with black plastic over winter ! Good idea ?
Also I wish to make raised beds ; I have many furniture planks , can i use them or get special wooden planks to make the beds ?
Thank you
Simba
Sounds good, except I wouldn't do the black plastic.
I covered mine with whatever I could find in the neighbourhood. Grass clippings, leafs, and straw. Depending on how much it all degrades I am work it in the soil or use it as a mulch in spring. Or it goes on the compost heap.
I have a clay soil but the typical freezing/breaking up the clay doesn't work here up north for some reason. Maybe because there aren't thaw/freeze cycles here up north in Finland. It just freezes. So I don't dig up my soil in autumn. I remove most of the stuff on top but leave the soil pretty much intact. If I do digging I do it in spring. But I also have various non-dig systems, such as "hugel kultur" and a lasagna bed. No digging there.
On the hugel kultur beds I only top up the mulch. Grass clippings and straw found in local park. (they don't spray). The lasagna bed I only started this year, because the hugel kultur I started the previous year literally saved my season. Everything grown there was a success, even though everything was planted later than in my regular beds. The bad weather last year made all normal bed harvests way below average. But not on my hugel. That gave amazing results.
For some reason it is impossible to get cow or horse manure here on the cheap in Finland. At least in my area. So most of my compost I scavenge from the surrounding neighbourhood. One house near my allotment site always dumps his grassclippings outside his garden in the public park. A bit rude maybe to the general public, but very considerate towards me. Thank you for the free mulch/compost.
I guess because I cannot use animal manure on the cheap my situation is slightly different and I had to shift in how I do my allotment. It's not because I think animal manure is bad; i would use it if I could lay my hands on it, it is just logistically not feasible.