Clearing the plot.

[Catherine]

Because of the awful weather we have been having I have not been able to clear our plot of weeds. We have had a large delivery of manure which is in a big pile on the plot waiting to be put on the beds. My question is, should we just put black plastic over our beds and leave them until the new year when hopefully it might be a bit drier and we can get on the beds and pull the weeds and put the manure on. OR should we spend time and mucky all our grass paths and clear the weeds and put the manure on the beds?

[Nature's Babe]

If it is fresh manure I would stack it, cover, and let it mature, fresh will burn your plants.
You could mow and mulch and then the weeds would be easier to remove in the spring, and the worms would work a lot of the mulch in to nourish the soil, mulched soil is looser and much easier to weed.
Here is a link to explain this method. i wouldn't rotovate as this chops up useful worms and weeds like bindweed and buttercup will be chopped into tiny pieces each bit will regrow.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 864235132#

[realfood]

I assume that you have checked the provenance of the manure to ensure that there is no possibility of the manure being contaminated with aminopyralid.

[Catherine]

I believe that we have got the manure from a stable which only uses an organically sourced straw supply. Is this good or not?

[Mike Vogel]

Catherine, why not just stack the manure on top of the weeds? It will kill them and save you the trouble of clearing them. If the weeds are more extensive than the area covered by the manure, at least that will save you some labour.

It would probably be best to set a layer of cardboard over the weeds and stack the manure on top of that. You will then need less manure per square metre and will cover more of the ground.