Muck - How much & on what?

This is confusing me!!!!

One says its ok as a mulch others are saying it isnt

ARGHHHHH!!!!

Paula

Hi Peapod,
Ive been gardening 45 years   both for a living and now Im retired I still garden both as a hobby and to help cut the bills and eat good clean food so let me explain one or two points and then you can make your own mind up.

The soil in any garden has to be of a grade that can feed any produce thats planted in it, hence we use compost or manure to get the soil to this grade,  once we have a correct grade we keep this grade to a level so that the plants have enough good humas to feed all the plants and good well fed plants will fight decease and be stronger than soil thats just replanted every year with no thoughts of refueling the soil, its just like you and I and a bank account(an other way of looking at the situation) If you keep taking out money and dont put any in the account you,ll soon run out of cash)
The gardens the same, as you take produce out you,ve just taken some goodness out and so to keep your soil ready to go on feeding the future plants you need to keep the humus up by replacing it with compost or manure.

Now when to put back this goodness.?
Every time you take out put some back "I do it all through the year in the form of compost.
Manure is used during the winter, if you spread it on the top of the ground the worms will pull it down to the under ground and this will only do your plants a power of good and help the top soil to soak up all the goodness through rain.

If you read any gardeing books ref fruit trees and shrubs it tells you to use manure during the winter months as a mulch, not only will this manure feed your trees/shrubs through the winter it will also ensure the roots dont dry out in the hot weather.

One last point for you to think about, your not only feeding the plants/trees etc when putting manure or compost on the ground or digging it in the ground but your feeding the humus thats working away rotting all the bacteria that ends up as natural compost.

I hope this hasnt been to much to take in all at once and to make it simple for you, put as much compost or manure as you can spare on top of the ground for all winter (except where your next years root crops are going to be planted "it causes the root veg to fork so only put manure after you,ve removed spuds carrots etc) once spring time arrives turn over the area,s you put all the manure over and you,ve now a fully upgraded piece of land ready to start planting.