Thank you for the reply, Charles. The green manure is phacelia and is now about a foot high. Haven’t quite decided yet what to plant in this particular bed. It had potatoes last year, and then we planted the green manure a little while after they were harvested. Can’t quite remember when –perhaps about the end of August, early September.
Interesting what you say about spreading the manure depending when one is going sew things. Does one vary the time of the manure mulch even without green manure already being there? I have some bare ground as well (have just been getting out perennial weeds today on the beds where the beans and sweet corn were)and was thinking of putting a thick layer of manure over them all. But should I decide my planting for next year now (about to do so in any case) and then vary the time I put down the horse manure depending on that?
You mentioned carrots–do you spread manure for root vegetables–as the conventional advice is not to do so?
And finally–am I right that you would not dig in the green manure before spreading the horse manure? I assume you just cut it? Compost the cuttings or leave them lying?
Oh yes–and my allotment soil on these beds is a lovely medium loam with not too many slugs.
Thanks for considering these many questions.