I’ve been “no-digging’ in SW France for four years using cow manure with great success. I’m in the Périgord Noir ( near Sarlat) When I started my raised beds I really struggled to find ‘bonne terre’ A neighbouring farmer offered me as much manure as I was prepared to dig from his winter barn and I’ve never looked back. The first year I piled in a huge quantity of it in to fill the beds (probably 50% manure!) and mixed it in with the poor quality soil I had. I had the most amazing crops!!
Now I use Charles’ method of laying a thick mulch of manure on the beds in autumn. I just spread it on roughly and by spring even the big lumps break down easily. I give it a cursory rake to smooth it out a bit, then plant straight into it. It works really well! I use nothing else – no fertilizers etc.
The manure is sometimes quite lumpy, other times it has lots of straw. Depending when I collect it, there is sometimes some fresher stuff mixed in with older, but I just use it as is and it works fine.
I don’t add any other mulch during our hot dry summers.
