Manure Frustration - Help!

I've always been envoius of gardeners who can get hold of plentiful supplies of manure. Since I began gardening at the age of 11 I have never dealt with manure and wonder if I really am gardening at all, as it seems so heavyily relied upon still.

Here's my problem. My other half wants his beds in his little garden planted up soon, as he's "fed up at looking at bare patches of soil". But I feel I can't do this yet as the soil is just terrible. It's bright orange clay and extremely sticky. To make matters worse his section of the garden I cunningly gave him is in shade most of the day and it seems all I can plant here is woodland plants which like good quality soil.

I told him that we need manure to improve the soil and that we can get it for free from local stables. He was interested up until the point when I said we would have to put it in the car and said that was out of the question. His car also has a skirt at the rear, so no chance of a trailer either. I can't drive or know anyone who would allow me to fill their car up with manure, so am stuck what to do. The only other option is to hire a flat bed truck at £70 a day and wonder if it's worth that.

He's now suggesting I find a stables which will deliver a huge amount of manure and so far this search has proven fruitless. I'm really stuck what to do, so thought I would throw it open to you to help me out somehow. Although the venting has helped already

 

Have you got a relative or neighbour that can help you out, you could offer to pay for the petrol.

 

Just give him the choice. Does he want to plant it up himself, and take full responsibility for it, or does he want you to do it for him, in which case he has to do as he's told?

You can actually buy in well rotted manure delivered in bulk bags, and depending on how far away the stables are (and therefore how much petrol you'd use on multiple round trips) it may not be much more expensive. I.e. the manure from the stables might be free, but if the stables are 10 miles away, and the car is small enough so it takes 10 trips to pick up a tonne of the stuff, you'd have clocked up 200 miles of fully laden local trip miles, which could be half a tank of petrol depending on the car. Still likely cheaper than buying the stuff and having it delivered, but maybe not that much cheaper.

 

Do a google for spent mushroom compost Jane, you can probably get that delivered, sorry i've forgotten where you are.

 

Do you live near the countryside? Stables often sell bagged-up horse manure, usually about 50p/£1 a bag which, whilst not being exactly clean, could be put into the boot of a car without too much mess, especially if you line the boot with plastic sheets, dust sheets etc.

 

If I was nearer I would do it for you,have you not got a local van & man hire sort of thing?

 

Mature manure does NOT smell,
Other than that he can go buy it from any SHED Homebase etc, Just like MPC but pride costs
http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wc...ay?langId=110&storeId=10151&partNumber=676408

£6.59 50Ltrs, where as from the stables rich with worms = £1 50Ltrs plus fuel and time

Balls in his court

Jack McH

 

Oh if only I was a better nagging missus I doubt we would have this problem. When we started off his little patch he wanted to mow the lawn himself, weed etc etc. Straight away he never looked after it, even though his workshop looks over it, he's never had that instinct to look after his own patch. So I ended up doing it for him. He can't really work out what sort of plants he wants either which is really frustrating me too.

He wants a japanese, jungle woodland style garden, with more lawn than beds! :wallbang:

I have no idea where you would be able to get that sort of stuff. I live in essex and have never really seen it advertised. I imagine it would be more expensive than manure too?

One idea we have had is if I bought a load of plastic boxes with a resealable lid that would hold roughly 80 litres we could put them in the car without any mess or smell. But for this job this would take forever to get enough manure for his beds. But would probably be enough to top the garden up with, veg beds etc.

Thank you for that. I will have to look into the man with a van idea. But I imagine that they may be even more reluctant to ruin their vans for my cause.

I can't remember if I said in the original post, but he is happy to pay for the manure. My local garden centre sells 50 litre bags for £3.99 but again it would take us ages to get a large amount of manure back and forth from there.

I found someone on eBay last night who will deliver 2 cubic litres for £30 plus £10 delivery. I'm hoping this will be enough to do his beds and also a good deal, but am not sure.

 

http://www.mrmuck.co.uk/product/mushroom-compost/?gclid=CN2c7a3Fu68CFQ1lfAodPggAjA

 

In extremis you could plant it now, and then mulch with 2" - 3" of well rotted manure as soon as you have it available. That will keep the moisture in, the goodness will soak in when it rains, and the worms will dig it in over time - or, if sooner, you will dig it in during the Autumn or whenever you plant.

You could mix a barrow load of some of your soil with some bags of "improver" (manure, compost, whatever) from the garden centre to make a "planting soil" and then back-fill any planting holes you make with that, rather than your own soil, so the plants have some easy-growing media right next to them (I do that for all the things I plant in from 2L pots and larger). Get some horticultural grit too, as your soil is clay, and add that into your "planting soil" mix.

Its a waste product of mushroom farms, so they are happy to get rid of it (although it has a value and thus a price). Depends if you have any mushroom farms nearby, as the cost is mostly "transport". Its alkaline, and your clay soil probably is too?, so I would recommend only using it once, and not every year. (Once is fine though, and its much easier / cleaner to work with than manure)

Too much faff, too much cost buying the boxes ... as others have said carefully filled bags will be fine. If it smells then its fresh and not suitable to go on the garden (needs stacking for 6 - 12 months first).

"Cubic metres" I hope? That's quite a lot (dunno how big you garden is?). Do you know those big builders "dumpy" bags? They are one cubic metre each, so it would be the size of two of those. at 3" deep that would be 26 sq.m. - that's a bit over 5 metres x 5 metres. You can use less than 3", but I think that would be a good amount to start with if your soil is in need of help!

 

We can get as much cow manure as we want and how much have we had?.....................None. We produce as much compost from our compost bins as we can handle without having to bring in heavens knows what weeds from elsewhere.
Seriously you do not need animal manure to improve the structure of your soil. Good quality compost, either your own make or the Council produced stuff is just as good and it has no smell if properly made and it is clean.

 

To make your own you need some elapsed-time though, and enough "material" to create it from, so that's a "jam tomorrow" solution. But if you have material, and space enough for a compost "heap" (a Dalek will do, check if your local councils is subsidising the price of one) then no reason not too and you then know the provenance.

I'm more sceptical about the Council stuff, but [perhaps without good reason. People putting lawn clippings in after treating with a persistent selective herbicide like Verdone [this came up in discussion here before and the general consensus was that the concentration, after mixing/composting, would be so low as to have no impact], and bits of glass / other rubbish which thoughtless people might have included. Worth checking with local authority though as I have heard that many provide it for free for the carting away, or cheap-as-chips.

 

Ask around at your local allotment site Jane, chances are they have it delivered for a small fee and you might get the same service if you can get a phone number.

Steve...

 

some recycle centres make compost of the contents from green/brown bins
they call it organic soil conditioner ...

public can buy (either collect or delivered)

the last prices I got last year were:
£15 per cubic meter for compost
£35 per cubic meter for compost/soil blend

and those were the prices delivered in dumpy bags ....

this is the website and they will advise who is the closest to you
http://www.cumberlows.co.uk/section.html

it's pretty good if you want to add it to your beds to improve the soil .... add loads of that ..... and a bit of manure