[prakash_mib]

I am trying to dig in horse manure in the plot. Got hold of some well rotted (so rotted that it looks like a peat bog).
now the question is
1. should I dig my soil (it is hard and lumpy)
2. should I add manure while digging or dig the soil and add manure on top?
3. should I cover it after digging and manuring
advice please! 

[johnfh]

Personally I would just spread it on top and let the worms and weather take it in during the winter then dig in spring. Actually I would probably use glyphosphate in spring, depending on state of weeds then, leave a couple of weeks and then rotovate, but I am getting on a bit and getting lazy! Besides I like using  my rotovator and tiller.

[peterjf]

i would dig it over , leave in large clumps , spread manure over it and then leave it till early spring ,

spray glyphosate in spring , leave for 2-3 weeks,

then rotovate ,

[PAULW]

As the last post dig it leave in big lumps cover with manure and leave overwinter

[greenhead]

Prakash, snap!! just had a load too - my question - how thick a layer of horse manure when placed on top of the dug earth?

[Dave Mack]

I've just got a load of chicken and well rotted horse poo , i'm leaving mine bagged up till November till all the weeds have stopped growing , then i'm just spreading it over the tops of the beds , at the end of Febuary i'll be digging it in 

[pvc]

hi dave dont mind me asking I live in the merseyside area and really struggling to get any horse manure and chicken poo everybody wants ridiculous money for it or are miles ,could you put me in the right direction to get some ta

[Dave Mack]

hi dave dont mind me asking I live in the merseyside area and really struggling to get any horse manure and chicken poo everybody wants ridiculous money for it or are miles ,could you put me in the right direction to get some ta

You have to have 10 posts before i can PM you a address were to get it ... sorry thats the site rules not mine 
Send me a private message when you hit the 10 post mark matey 

[pvc]

thanks dave will do

[Terrier]

Over the border here in North Wales were under a mountain of the stuff and nobody want's it. I've just put a notice on local Freecycle and only had one caller. I guess people would rather go to the garden centres these days and buy 'farmyard manure'.

[mumofstig]

or is everybody just a bit wary because of the Aminopyralid problem 

[prakash_mib]

or is everybody just a bit wary because of the Aminopyralid problem 

do they guarantee aminoblahblah free?

[veggieman]

Up here in the breezy but beautiful Shetland Islands, I have got some horse manure, cow manure, sheep manure, chicken manure pellets, Shetland pony manure and, if I really had the patience, I could go into the field behind us and gather up some rabbit manure.

I have only lived here for around 30 months and have used all the different manures, at various times, as I have tried to make a veggie garden on what was previously very poor and uncultivated soil. Which manure is actually the best for the garden?

I have also added, during the two winters I have been here, some peat (freely available from the hills here and traditionally burnt as fuel by the locals) plus some seaweed from the nearby coastline. It is a case of trying to get nutrients into the ground.

[potatogrower]

if the soil is hard then best to just roughly break it up with a fork, no need to work the soil too much for now and then evenly spread the manure all over. over winter it will settle down and soil below will go moist and soft. once spring arrives just dig it all in. or you could i suppose break up the soil, add the manure, add compost (since you say you have hard soil) and rotivate it all in and leave over winter. weeds will always come every year, no escaping i'm afraid unless you can cover it up

[pvc]

my plot is in the city so not many riding stables around all the the advertised free manure is all in the countryside so had resort to buying some farmyard manure which was on offer in the local garden centre