River Cottage

Such a lovely day out there today and I have started digging in my rotted manure into one of my veggie plots. If we get another mild frost or two it will help to break down the soil again with the manure in it. I will be emptying the rest of my compost bins onto the other plots soon too and dig in as I prepare my beds ready for planting from March onwards.

I'm in Lancashire, it's still quite wet here, what part of the country are you  in Wf?

I dig when the ground is dry enough. Try to get half dug before winter comes in, leave the ground that has crops in obviously and dig that as the crops come out. I used to do most of my digging in Feb/march but as I improve the soil, it grows winter crops better and I find myself with more stuff standing - leeks, kale, sprouts, cabbages, winter onions and the like.

Unless your soil is like concreat, I would be tempted to forgo the digging where you can and plant your veg into trenches or stations of good home made mixture - soil, sharp sand, rock dust, peat (while the Irish burn it in power stations I have no probs using it in the garden) and two year rotted much.

Spread out some blood fish and bone aswell, to many people just chuck in the pelleted chicken manure - while it is good for what it is, it the equivilent of feeding your soil on chips and chicken nuggets.

The old advice is the best - when you are not getting heavy clods sticking to your boots, you are good to dig.

Many thanks both..

I dug over part of my veg plot yesterday to plant some onion sets. I used manure for the first time too this year around about the same time as you potty. I'm not particularly experienced at this but I can see that it was the right time to do it as large clumps of soil (from pre-winter dig) had been broken down by the frost and it all seemed nice and crumbly. The ground was fairly dry and not frozen. Very pleased I used manure and compost on the ground - the soil looks excellent now. From what I've read, I'd definitely agree with dr rocker's last point.

Wait until the ground is reasonable Potty, Hire a big Rotavator & "Grind it in" !

If it's fresh manure - the decomposition process will rob the soil of Nitrogen & adversely affect leaf growth - you may have to grind in a good dose of a Nitrogen based fertiliser at the same time - which will make the soil more acid and so a dose of "Lime" at the same time will be required to sweeten the soil.

If it's well - rotted - just "Grind it in" (possibly with some lime - do a "PH" test) - make the soil light and fluffy at the same time, ready for sowing - as long as you do it before you sow the seed, the actual timing isan't that important - but knowing it's effects is !

Hi Potty, I am in North Buckinghamshire with the Bedfordshire & Northamptonshire borders only a few miles away.

My rotted manure is completely composted down as I have 6 compost heaps that I rotate in use so that it is about 12-18 months old by the time I use it. It has completely broken down in that time. My heaps are a mixture of veggie peelings, chicken/duck manure, sheep manure, small amount of hay, tea bags etc etc so good mix.

You won't go too far wrong potty if you follow dr rocker's advice, when the mud don't stick you can dig it over! If it sticks it is too wet.My advice with liming and manure is to keep them apart, but each to his own. Basically manure for potatoes and lime for brassicas-well that's how I do it and it works for me. Soil type governs a lot of the process.

I could be a long time waiting then, we have had rain again all day here, it's very wet at the lotty. The manure has been on around 4mnths now, but it doesn't seem to rotting down very quick to me. Like I say other lotty holders did the same as me and they haven't touched theirs yet and it looks the same as mine. So will wait till its drier and keep me eye's on the rest of them to see when they start digging...

Thanks all.

I took over a garden from a guy who never put anything back in the 8 years he worked for Lord M.

I dug one of the 8 veg borders over and put 30 barrow fulls of well rotted on the top about 4inches deep. I only found 2 worms in the whole bed.

I did the same on 6 other beds, some with FYM and some with spent mushroom compost (for the lime content).

Once the beds were covered I didn't dig them again, letting the worms do the work (I now have thousands) They work away 24/7 under a sheet of black plastic in the hardest weather.

In a few weeks time I shall start planting all of which will be from a scaffolding plank to keep off the ground and not destroy all the soil structure the worms have created.

I have gardened for over 40 years professionally and find once you have the soil clean and worked over digging is the last thing you need to be doing. Let the worms do all the work.

Cover any bare ground with lawn mowings or even better lawn mowings with leaves in and let nature take the strain.