Kitchen Garden Forum

I have been lucky this year and been able to access several tons of extremely well rotted farmyard cow manure, have rough dug the plot and am now spreading about 4 - 6 inches thick on top of the beds, my plan is to leave till spring and then fork over or rotovate it in. How about covering it in black plastic once the manure has been spread? I am thinking this will stop some of the goodness leaching away and give the worms and insects a great environment to break up the manure? Please let me have your thoughts

CoMpO

Lucky you! I gather we're being forecast a drought winter with very little rain so I don't know whether any lack of moisture will affect the manure being absorbed by the worms but I certainly think the black plastic will allow the soil to warm up slightly and will, of course,prevent any winter weeds from germinating in a warmer environment.

Are you planning to leave any area untreated for growing root crops like parsnips, etc which apparently don't like growing in freshly manured soil? (actually I'm not sure how true this actually is or whether it's an urban myth).

The downside to covering with plastic all winter is that you are also making the perfect environment for slugs, snails, rats and any other pests to have a nice warm cosy winter home

I just keep topping soil with home made compost, the worms incorporate it and it certainly helps retain moisture from any rain that does fall.

Compo, we, too, get an annual delivery of good cow manure (just dropped over the fence from the field by fore end loader) and I have tried both methods - covered over winter and not covered. My preference now is to leave it uncovered. The manure on the covered beds did not appear to be taken by worms any more quickly than the uncovered one and, in fact, the manure under the cover stayed quite squelchy and "gooey" whereas the uncovered one seemed to have broken down more quickly. Then, in spring, I just fork it in, like you are planning.

Thanks all, and I will probably agree with Monika, and leave it uncovered, reducing slug and snail potential, I know people talk about the goodness leaching out, but this stuff has been stood for two years in the open already, a few more months won't make any difference, and i think with the clay we are on, any frost we will have help also.

CoMpO