Starting afresh

Flowers, Trees, Lawns, Infrastructures, Maintenance & anything else!
Post Reply
Katiepotts
Learner Laner
Posts: 1
Joined: 16 Aug 2012, 09:48
Gender: Female

Starting afresh

Post by Katiepotts »

I have starved soil in all my borders {cry} . Have used mushroom compost and soil improvers in the past but have been advised to use well rotted horse manure to dig in. Some areas are heavy compacted 'rocks' of soil, but dry. Others in the raised borders are just like dust. Looking on websites, which is how I accidentally found you all, there is conflicting advice, re compost and cow or horse muck. Any advice or ideas from out there for a new member?
User avatar
lancashire lass
Legendary Laner
Posts: 6528
Joined: 28 Jun 2007, 15:17

Re: Starting afresh

Post by lancashire lass »

Hi Katiepotts and welcome to DTL :-D

Mushroom compost is perfectly alright and whoever advised manure instead has given you conflicting advice without explaining why. Mushroom compost is not only vegetable matter full of useful nutrients that you dig in, but also contains lime which helps to break down clay into lovely soil. Perhaps the problem has been soil pH - mushroom compost will raise the pH of soil whereas animal manure tend to lower it (most plants grow best in the mid range of about 6.5 - 7) If your soil is already a high pH (chalk soil perhaps?), then maybe that is why you have been told to choose an animal manure to lower it? Maybe you could use a soil pH kit to find out - they are not expensive from garden centres (use the kit with the coloured solutions rather than buy an expensive soil pH meter which are not reliable)

Horse or cow manure - you can use either. A lot of people prefer horse manure but find their soil full of weeds that they never used to have before where the seeds that the horse ate had not digested. This doesn't appear to happen quite the same with cow manure. There are other types of manure you can use instead including pig, rabbit, chicken to improve soil fertility. You can even grow a "green manure" which are plants that you dig in before they flower and they not only compost down and add nutrients but also lots of vegetable matter that help to break down heavy soils. The addition of any manure or compost will also help to retain moisture which is what you need by the sounds of it.

All manure and even garden compost raise the nitrogen level in the soil which plants need to grow healthy green leaves. The debate as to whether animal manure is superior to garden compost is nonsense - compost actually has slightly higher nitrogen than manure and the other advantage is that plant material also contains a higher percentage of micro-nutrients such as magnesium, calcium etc

To answer your dilemna about what to use, it doesn't really matter if you use compost or manure or both, but it does sound like the soil is in need of some attention. First - those compacted rocks of soil need to be broken down using a spade or fork. Just doing that alone will improve drainage and will also aerate the soil. Digging in compost and/or manure will then encourage soil fauna to thrive - earthworms and bacteria that break down plant material and improve the soil fertility.

If your soil regularly gets dry, perhaps consider a mulch as well. The easiest of all is grass cuttings which you lay over the top of the soil after planting up, and this helps to retain moisture on the soil surface, or even layer compost or well rotted manure on top instead - at the end of the year you then just dig it into the soil and leave it over winter. If you don't mind putting cardboard down instead, and you can always make it look neater with say bark chippings on top. Try not to dig the bark chippings into the soil as they will actually rob the soil of nitrogen.

With regards to how often to add manure to particular beds, I was told that once every 2-3 years was ample enough but from experience, my friend used to dig in horse manure EVERY YEAR in the same beds with no problems. Every other year might be the best until your soil improves, but compost - every year is fine.
User avatar
Annie
Project Hedgehog Leader
Posts: 10383
Joined: 01 Aug 2010, 15:45
Gender: Female
Location: lennoxtown North of Glasgow

Re: Starting afresh

Post by Annie »

You have had such a full and interesting post from LL that I really could add nothing to it apart from saying Hello and welcome to the forum, glad you found us and hope you will enjoy contributing .
It will be alright in the end , if its not alright, it isn't the end .
Quote from the proprietor of the The best exotic Marigold Hotel for the elderly and beautiful
Post Reply