[yorkiegal]

My site has free horse manure delivered each week for us to help ourselves to.
I'm clearing my new plot and won't be planting on it all this year so aim to get rid of the weeds and cover about half of it up. Is it ok to put fresh manure on that area and just leave it to rot in, under tarp?

I'm building a couple of raised beds so I can plant some stuff in the next few weeks. I take it that adding fresh manure to this would be a bad idea?

Lastly, I have two big dalek composters to fill. I was thinking of filling one of them with manure and leaving it to rot. Is that ok or am I best just having a heap of it out in the open?

[Janeymiddlewife]

Hi yorkiegal, fresh manure needs to rot down until it loses its pongy smell and is less "claggy", are you planning to clear the weeds first and then cover it?
You could leave the manure in a pile in the open, but cover it with tarp if you're not using it until the autumn to stop any rain (what's that?!)  washing nutrients away.
HTH
JMW

[Plot 6B]

As you are not growing anything this year you could bury it as you dig over your plot.
Dig one spit deep and throw the soil forward and then layer the manure into the trench you have created and as you dig the next row throw the soil over the manure.
I hope that makes sense.

[snowdrops]

Or you could work extra extra hard & double dig. The good thing with dd is you only need to do it once but it is a hard slow process. I think there are links to how to do it better than I can describe.

[Plot 6B]

Or you could work extra extra hard & double dig. The good thing with dd is you only need to do it once but it is a hard slow process. I think there are links to how to do it better than I can describe.

I did go for the easy option
You are correct in saying that Double Digging is the harder but better option.
 In saying that if the plot has not been cultivated in previous years Single Digging would suffice!

[snowdrops]

Or you could work extra extra hard & double dig. The good thing with dd is you only need to do it once but it is a hard slow process. I think there are links to how to do it better than I can describe.

I did go for the easy option
You are correct in saying that Double Digging is the harder but better option.
 In saying that if the plot has not been cultivated in previous years Single Digging would suffice!

That's true Nige

[richyrich7]

If I'm correct in reading your going to, clear a patch, put some fresh manure down over an area of your plot and cover it with a tarpaulin( or something similar ) and then leave it ill next year ?

That sounds like a good plan, the worms etc will break it all down for you and pull it into the soil, I would think you'd end up with a nice friable soil. if you can put enough down. Only down side I could think of is sometimes soil covered with a waterproof membrane can dry out and become hard.
I saw a similar idea once in a book called the organic allotment cant remember the publisher it was one of those long paper back things I still have it somewhere 

[yorkiegal]

thanks. i suppose i could periodically take the tarp up and give it a good watering?

[LeeR]

Don't forget to test it for Aminopyralid before you put it on your plot.  Just do a search on this site or on google to see how to do a test.

[richyrich7]

thanks. i suppose i could periodically take the tarp up and give it a good watering?

Suppose you could.  I'd just keep an eye on it, you don't want to let too much light in but if it gets dry and it looks like a good downpour , I'd be tempted to pull it back and let nature help you out.

1st thing would be to get as much muck underneath it as you can lay your hands on, which sounds like your sorted with .... lucky you  

[yorkiegal]

Don't forget to test it for Aminopyralid before you put it on your plot.  Just do a search on this site or on google to see how to do a test.

It's ok. The other plot holders said it's safe to use.