[rachelw]

I wonder if someone can give us some advice.  We have just had a great pile of what I thought was going to be soil mixed with compost/manure delivered; it is actually just manure - pretty well rotted down, quite peaty, not smelly, but steaming in some places.

We want to use this for raised beds.  We have got a bit of spare topsoil to mix in with this stuff, but what I wanted to know was:
- what kinds of proportion should we be mixing soil/manure in
- whether we have to dig the ground beneath the beds - and if so is double-digging necessary
- and can we use it to grow anything in this year? or does it need to rot down even more?

Also, can anyone recommend a good book about growing veg in beds (about spacing, rotation, companion planting etc.)?  We have various books, but the spacing is all designed for walk-on-the-beds gardening.

Thank you!

[noshed]

If it's not smelly and it smells earthy it's probably OK. It's the ammonia in the urine which burns the leaves if manure is too fresh, I believe.
There is a book I got from Amazon about raised bed growing - something like "Growing Veg on Raised Beds the Organic Way" but I though it was a bit thin for the money. The most useful book I've got is Joy Larkom's "Grow Your Own Vegetables" which deals with raised beds. But as for spacing you just add the two measurements together and divide by two - so if it says sow 6" apart in rows 12" apart, then sow in blocks 9" apart, like dots on a domino.
It does make it harder to hoe but it makes the most of the space you have available. (Mine are sort of like that but I have made some ad hoc changes due to things being eaten, so it's a bit higgledy-piggledy in places.)
Good luck!