[Shed9]

Dear All

With manure at £50 delivered I wondered if council park leaves (free and plenty delivered to site) plus chicken manure pellets are just as good. Would it lead to any particular problems?

Thanks

[crh75]

Turning the leaves into leaf mold makes an excellent soil conditioner and the manure pellets will add some nutients. 

[Baldy]

Here's what Alys has to say about leaf mould
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/oct/14/alys-fowler-leaf-mould

No doubt the chicken pellets would make up for some of the lack of nutrient in leaf mould vs manure - but then it depends on how much/rich in nutrients the manure you get for £50 would be (and what the pellets would cost)

Also, you need to leave the leaves ( ) for a year or more for them to properly break down.

Cheers,
Balders

[Shed9]

The amount of manure (£35 for the muck and £15 for delivery) looks to me like it would spread to cover less than a third of my plot so its not a generous amount plus I already have some chicken pellets in stock. Interesting article about leaves - thanks for posting the link. The leaves we have come in huge damp steaming piles and seem to be incorporated into the soil by the worms quite quickly. I have spoken to another plot holder and he was saying he hasn't had manure for many years and his crops are great (he uses chicken pellets as well). I reckon I will be giving the manure a miss for another year.

[AnneB]

I don't know how much manure you are getting for your money, but do you have any riding stables nearby?   We do, and they are only too grateful for us to take as much as we want whenever we need free of charge.   All we have to do is take our own bags.   You just need to check that they don't use or haven't used aminopyralid as a herbicide on their pasture.
I know we're from Yorkshire, but despite the saying,  we wouldn't shell out brass for muck!

Chicken pellets are very good, but we suffer from foxes who dig things up looking for the chickens in vain on our site.