This topic contains 5 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by charles 11 years ago.
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Hi Serena, a good question and not so easy to answer, but here goes.
Assuming you are making, say, four foot beds and 18 inch or two foot paths, that means about two thirds of the area needs a good 2-3" manure. I recommend 6" for smaller beds where there is a need to fill them and smother weeds and grass. You can spread 6" but that is a lot of tons as I reckon five tons would be enough for 3 inches on your beds. But I do not know a source near Frome, ask around for stables, somebody will give you a lead.
You could also buy a 3 ton load of green waste from Dimmer for your paths (at 1-2" thick, will save a lot of weeding, hold moisture and give a nice clean surface to walk on once it settles down) and also to bulk up the manure.
A caveat on my tonnage figures is that thickness of manure and compost is difficult to measure because of lumpiness and it varies according to how settled it is: three inches now is two inches in a fortnight as it loses the initial fluffiness, but that also depends how decomposed it is!
I hope this give you ideas at least, and perhaps it all sounds a lot but it should set you up for a good few seasons with top-ups of about a ton yearly, and you may manage that with your own compost.
Hi Charles,
A friend and I attended your recent talk at a very cold Wisley (I was the lady who asked about brassicas after potatoes).
We’ve both struggled with this kind of calculation. Is there a rough guide, say a tonne of manure might cover around xxx square metres?
Yes a tricky one, depending how wet (therefore heavy) the compost is, and whether one measures the inches in depth applied during the just-applied, fluffed up state, or when it has settled or been firmed down.
I just filled a 4×9 foot bed to four inches (firmed by walking on) with a third of a ton.
On that basis, one ton covers about one hundred square feet with four inches of compost, or about nine square metres.
Or it would cover eighteen square metres at a two inch depth, well firmed.
Recently I was quoted for 10 tonnes of mushroom compost which is twenty square metres, because it is less dense. At that reduced density, one tonne would therefore cover an area almost twice as large as the dense compost, about forty square metres at a two inch depth.
Or it would fill one bed of 1.2mx10m (four feet by thirty three) to a depth of six inches.
I hope this helps! One thing is sure, one always needs a little extra.
That is really helpful. A standard half allotment where I live is 10x10m (or five rods in very old money) so about a ton of manure would just about cover one when the paths are taken into account.
That is right, not much more than an inch for your beds, good if they are weed free.
I spoke recently with an old gardener who has always enjoyed good vegetables with even a half inch annually, of good quality home made compost, but he was weeding more and the moisture retention is less impressive. All is possible.
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