a bit of advice on my soil.

Did you actually grow any veg last year following spreading the horse manure? If you did and they were OK then I wouldn't worry.

I'm not exactly sure what you are refering to when you say "infected/diseased manure". There have been issues with contaminated compost over the last couple of years, a new very persistant weedkiller has found its way into a small percentage of manure/compost supplies. I was one of the unlucky ones last years who had some, and it does devastate your veg - you would have know if you had it. There are hotspots in the UK, here in Surrey some of us were badly hit whilst next door neighbours were OK - just depends which supplier/farmer it originated from.

Anyway you did the right thing in spreading your horse manure and digging in, the bacteria in the soil will break the weedkiller down, although no-one is sure how long it takes we are hopeful this year it should be mostly gone - I'm certainly going to grow some more veg in my affected veg plot this year.

The govt advice is to mix the compost into your soil as best you can (they say with a rotovator if you've got one, I haven't so I just use a spade/fork) - go over your patch in March when the soil warms up a bit and thoroughly mix the compost into the soil as deep as you can. I reckon you wan't have any problems and your manure will do the world of good to your plot. Good luck!

 

PS: If you move the manure to a compost bin the weedkiller will not break down and you are just delaying the problem to another year - so don't do that. I would add growmore or similar to your soil when planting veg anyway - depends what veg you are growing but most will benefit.

Use your new compost by all means - that sounds good stuff :gnthb:

 

John's right :thmb:. If your veggies grew OK last year then you shouldn't have any trouble this year. Most veggies are pretty hardy and will grow in most conditions. As long as the soil doesn't get too compacted or too dry they will do well. Dig the ground, keep them watered and you can sit back and relax :yho:

If your soil is OK and you are able to make your own compost (as you appear to be) then spreading the compost should be good enough each year. An occasional top up with manure would help but is not essential and the manure problem you heard about has generally been sorted out. The suppliers that had the problem have been quite good about getting it sorted.

Good luck, and enjoy your gardening :D

 

Kevin, if you are going to get some more manure, I would double check with the stables where they got their hay from. Ask if the farmer used a spray called Forefront made by Dow Chemicals Inc (this contains the nasty chemical aminopyralid) which was responsible for all our problems last year. We got it banned around August last year, but its very persistant so anything sprayed last year would not be worth taking the risk.