The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: wannabesmallholder on April 08, 2017, 08:47:22 am
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We had 6 tonnes of farmyard manure delivered a few weeks ago :poo: ;D
Now what I should have done is had it dumped on a tarpaulin, but it arrived rather unexpectedly, so he just dumped it straight into the grass in our paddock, right next to the veg patch. I've just finished moving it all to where I want it and now am left with a patch which has a covering around 3-4cm of well rotten manure covering over the grass.
I was looking at it this morning, and wondering if it could be productive? I've got plenty of other stuff to do outside, so I don't want to spend a lot of time preparing the ground, but would anything grow on it as it is? Things I was wondering were....
- a wildflower area for attracting pollinating insects etc
- herbs
- squash (haven't got a space for them in the main plot this year)
- make a strawberry patch
We have sheep in the paddock, but it's not a big area so I could probably fence it off fairly easily
Would anything grow on that depth of muck, which is just sat in top of compacted soil and grass?
If not, then what should I do with it? If I leave it as it is will it just grow loads of weeds? Should I seed it with grass?
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I think it would be too rich for wildflowers abd geass might also struggle for a while. Herbs generally do best if nutrient levels are quite low.
Squash pumpkins and courgettes however will love it. I would suggest you grow in pots till after the last frost and dig planting holes for each, just a spades depth and width will do, break up some of the soil and surface muck to fill the hole as you plant, the muck will act as a mukch and the squash will shade the soil and surpress weeds as they grow. I generally go with planting about 1 meter appart.
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Brilliant thanks [member=97412]Terry T[/member] Will they be ok on just a thin layer on top of the grass though or do I need to add more muck to make it a thicker layer to plant into?
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I threw out a load of green potatoes onto my muck heap one year and got a surprise the following summer! They did really well.
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I've got some potatoes in my hen muck heap, a few weeks ago I dug up a couple that were nearly the size of my head - I didn't weigh them but guess they would have been 1.5kg each.
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I would add a bit more to each planting hole, delicious!
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With that depth of muck left I would expect the grass to soon grow through, plus a load of weeds like nettles. Either you could rake up more of the muck and use it elsewhere, or cover the whole area with weed suppressing fabric, then plant squashes or brassicas through planting holes in the fabric.
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My mum was moving house so emptied her compost bin onto the veggie patch (just a small plot). The sale fell through so she decided she might as well put some onion sets in and they came out like Spanish onions - huge. The best pumpkins I ever grew were once I planted in the manure heap in planting holes filled with compost.
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Courgettes, I had a huge muck heap on the drive for 2 years and each year I get another heap shifted onto the veg beds but it's too rich for roots and brassicas so I always put it where the courgettes (squashes probably too) will love it. Next year it gets beans/peas and year 3 it gets brassicas. I put tatties and roots elsewhere, big planters mostly. But I also put a layer of manure round rhubarb, onto the berry bed and on top of pots (avoiding the main stem of what's growing).
Given the depth left isn't much I'd rake it into a smaller higher heap, personally and put less on it but that can root better.
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We had 6 tonnes of farmyard manure delivered a few weeks ago :poo: ;D
Now what I should have done is had it dumped on a tarpaulin, but it arrived rather unexpectedly, so he just dumped it straight into the grass in our paddock, right next to the veg patch. I've just finished moving it all to where I want it and now am left with a patch which has a covering around 3-4cm of well rotten manure covering over the grass.
I'd rotovate it well ,then in a few days time put in plenty of potatoes a spade depth in the soil , two feet apart three or four feet between rows to allow you to ridge up once the plants poke through . they are greedy feeders & the over head cover from the pants will keep the weeds down .
Surprisingly you don't need to have the seed spuds chitted they will happily grow without them . run the rows north to south so you get even sunlight across the rows
That way it will give you thinking & breathing time till next year to work out if you want to use the area for brassica &then roots the year after .
The ridging will help improve the friability of the soil too.