Manure Ahoy..........

Well the young man turned up today (I was doubtful) so Im very pleased and at this very moment there are bags and bags of manure from the garden centre being dug into my soil. Im sure it feels better already. On starting to dig he said the soil is so dry, stony and in parts clay he was surprised Id managed to grow anything whatsoever in it. Made me feel a bit less rubbish at my poor showing and failures this year. He said it wouldn't hurt to do it again in the springtime. Any thoughts on this gratefully accepted please.

 

I'm a great believer in mulching. If you think it needs even more manure apply a manure mulch over the area and let the worms do the work over the winter.

 

Hi,

Do wonder exactly what type of " Garden Center Manure " it is ?

Some standard commercial product like Westland Growsure farmyard manure or some true local stable manure etc ?

The trouble with applying lots of fresh manure / fertilizer in Spring is it could 'burn' the tender new shoots of your plants and also cause them to put on lots of leafy growth during the season, at the cost of few or no flowers.

 

@ricky101
I cant believe how many bags I needed to do such a small garden! (11x 80lts) and it still doesn't look that thick. In the end its been spread in a layer over the top (he was charging by the hr and the bill was getting too high) and I will go out and work it in as best I can over the next couple days. Once Ive done that I still think it will need another layer put on top. I will have to do it bit by bit and try and get it done by first frost. It was this one. He chose it coz it was a bigger bag and Peat Free.
@Marley Farley Im only going to grow flowers and no veg next year. Except maybe some toms in pots.

 

Hi,

You can never seem to have enough compost, but think we would let this current load be absorbed by the soil first.
Like most things little and often usually better ...

As mentioned earlier, you can just leave it on top and it will slowly be taken down into the soil.

Would not 'dig' it deep into the soil, thats a lot of unnecessary hard work, if you want to make it look neater /spread it around some more, just use a fork or hoe and lightly mix just the top inch or two of the soil.

When are you going to return your plants to the soil ? adding some Fish, Blood and Bone to the planting holes is a good thing, then adding some more compost around them as a mulch, once they have grown above soil level next spring.

 

Im not going to put the Delphiniums back in until next spring in the hope of getting them through the winter. As for the other plants, ie, Phlox, Hardy geraniums, Penstemons etc I really cant decide what to do.

 

Hi,

Likewise, am keeping our young Delphs in pots under some light cover over winter, though its often slugs that eat the new shoots just as they start to come through the soil, so you probably never see any shoots, making you think the plant has not survived the winter.

The same can be true of other emerging plants though never has any problems with h. geraniums.

Lots of slug repellents etc around if you like using them, find copper tape very effective.

Have put my pond frogs on a warning, eat more slugs and snails , or else !!