[rowlandwells]

there's many gardeners like myself who have there own views on the use of both maures and fertilisers from horse and cattle dung Mr Muck or make your own and so on. then there's the bag or pot fertilisers growmore chicken pellets and liquid feeds  its endless

there is  very good advise on this site on allotment and vegetable gardening but it would nice to see what your own preference are. it may be farm manure or your own recycled compost there is many many replies on what one should use so if you winter dig your dung in on the lottie do you use any additional manures like growmore or chicken pellets when setting seed or plants in the spring to give seed or plants  a bit of a bite do you add lime when preparing the ground in spring

do you use any liquid feed like sheep dung steeped in water for a year or phostrogen
or any nitrogen based liquid feed or others on your plants in the growing season

its important i believe to get a balanced view on this topic and  your opinions and advise on this subject as we have a  wide range of experienced gardeners up and down the country on this site and hopefully we will get some good sound  advise before we start gardening next year I've had many years of gardening but one should never be to old or naive to listen to others and what they have to say  

[solway cropper]

I make my own compost and leafmould. I rot down seaweed and also make a liquid feed from seaweed. If I can be bothered to collect it I also make a liquid feed from sheep muck and have a couple of sacks of wood ash gathered from scrub clearing operations nearby.

Blood fish and bone together with pelleted chicken manure are my preferred fertilizers.

I'm not particularly organic but I'd rather put natural materials back on my land than expensive chemicals. Also it's very difficult to over fertilize with organic materials.

[radiohead]

my daughter is a regular at a horse riding stable,and there is a huge pile of very well rotted manure going for free. It is too far from my lottie for a delivery so I bag up some every visit,and pile it on to every vacant bit of ground right through the year,an almost continual drip feed of manure onto my plot. I dig it in just before planting some crops..(dont do many root crops,so not an issue)...and a couple of generous bags under squashes and courgettes etc. bean trenches filled with it...(plus a generous quantity of seaweed this autumn)....At planting time 'hungry' crops also get a sprinkling of growmore forked in as well........This is only our 3rd season coming up on a lottie,but I used to grow veg years ago when I had a bigger garden and the same approach worked then as well as it seems to now.

[mumofstig]

I save all the waste from the lottie, garden and  kitchen and make use of it on the compost heap.  This year when I did my winter digging I dug in some seaweed meal.
Through the year I use BF&B and chicken manure pellets and my comfrey should be big enough to take some cutting next year, to make liquid feeds and to go in the compost.
Occasionally there is a free delivery of horse manure/wood chippings and the odd barrow of this gets dug in where the spuds are going (if I can get some before it disappears )

I do buy a liquid tomato feed, with magnesium, to use in the greenhouse if the tomatoes look a bit peaky

[Zippy]

My own homemade compost from shredded junkmail, grass mowings, spent straw and poo from our pet rabbit, coffee grounds from Starbucks and vegetable waste from the kitchen and allotment weeding; also seaweed from the beach.

Wood ash from our winter hearth.

Leafmould collected from elderly friends' yards and from the local Yoga community centre over autumn; something like 100 dustbin bags full overall.

I also collect grass mowings from a neighbour who mows an acre of grassland which also has manures collected in it from her free ranging goats; also hen muck from her rescued ladies.

I don't use animal manures unless the animals that produced it are sanctuary animals; that is, rescued from a battery existence.

You mentioned digging - I don't. I strew the compost on top and let the worms do what comes natural to them. I consider digging (unless digging out brambles etc on uncultivated land) detrimental to the natural soil ecosystem.

[Aunt Sally]

Goodness me Zippy 

You must spend all your time with your car filled with bin bags of compostables.  Or do you use a hand trolley to keep your carbon footprint down ?

[Zippy]

If its a massive amount and a distance away but still worth having - the former. If its a smaller amount - a large rucksac which will take a bin bag.

Regarding carbon footprint - I always try to arrange the collection on a route I was going to take anyway - like the leaves at the yoga centre are collected just before my yoga class by turning up 30 mins earlier; that way the people don't have to wade through drifts of leaves as they come in cos I've already bagged them.

I once stopped off en route at my goat keeper friends place to pick up eight bin bags of leaves and goat poo and a bag of hen manure, having been to a wedding reception in the area that same evening! We bagged it up by moonlight - very romantic!  (not my wedding reception  )

[rowlandwells]

very interesting replies so far can we keep this topic going as i'me very keen on getting my ground up to a good standard for growing next year so far so good

[Zippy]

a tip for you rowlandwells{ whenever you go to a wedding reception, always carry a bin bag or two and a lawn rake, small shovel and a couple of boards in you boot - you never know when you might come across a pile of leaves or horse manure on your travels!

[zazen999]

It also depends on your actual soil. Mine is clay and to be honest, I don't really need manures and when I did buy some - it was contaminated so never again. 90% was removed and it cost us a year's growing and lots of blood, sweat and tears...anyhow back to the point.

I use cardboard, coffee grounds, sand and good old fashioned home made compost, comfrey, nettles, and anything I can get my hands on to add organic material to my clay.

Plus I have a wormery and they churn through it pretty quick.

[solway cropper]

A consensus seems to be developing that most of us make a lot of our own compost, feed, etc and don't like using manufactured stuff. I know BFB and chicken pellets are manufactured but they started from a natural source and release their nutrients in a natural way.

I don't think this would have been the case twenty or thirty years ago.

[zazen999]

A consensus seems to be developing that most of us make a lot of our own compost, feed, etc and don't like using manufactured stuff. I know BFB and chicken pellets are manufactured but they started from a natural source and release their nutrients in a natural way.

I don't think this would have been the case twenty or thirty years ago.

The problem with chicken pellets is they support the battery industry - one reason why I don't use them.

We all make our choices and the one that causes my soil least stress [and contamination] and my back least effort wins it for me.

[Zippy]

Same here for the same reasons.

The battery meat industry alone is enugh for me to avoid BFB and poultry pellets; even if they were the best thing since sliced bread and contaminated manure is enough for me to go the whole way and garden veganically.

[waddecar]

Leafmold from my own and neighbours trees

Lots of compost incorporating last years stable bedding from next doors stables and poo/straw/shavings from our ex batt hens

Composted straw bales from greenhouse (from last years tomatoes)

BFB as a general top dressing prior to planting

Regular spray with seaweed fertiliser through season

Sulphur chip dressing on blueberry bed to maintain low ph

Top dressing of sulphate of ammonia  in Jan/Feb on all fruit beds

Bonemeal- handful per planting hole for trees and shrubs

Vitax Q4 or similar pelteted slow release for hanging baskets

Growmore on ornamental beds and hedges

Occasionally add growmore to veg beds if i think the compost is not as well rotted as i would like to avoid any nitrogen deficit

[bigben]

It also depends on your actual soil. Mine is clay and to be honest, I don't really need manures and when I did buy some - it was contaminated so never again. 90% was removed and it cost us a year's growing and lots of blood, sweat and tears

Is this blood sweat and tears stuff a bit like blood fish and bone? Can you get it at Wilcos?