This topic contains 3 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by ashleigh 11 years, 10 months ago.
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Definitely worth it, if you are not growing in that soil. Just spread enough, if you have it, to cover the soil to about four inches, then trowel out any perennials which subsequently poke through. By next spring the worms should have pulled in a lot of the manure, you can rake off any which is in the way of sowing, and weeds will be mostly gone.
ah, i was about to post a related question.
we have access to a 4 ton heap of sheep manure/bedding that we’re told has been sitting there for 2 years. the top and bottom are nice and crumbly (top is covered in nettles) but the whole heap is sodden wet and with no heat being generated, and the middle 3 feet are unrotted, strawy and slimy. there are loads of worms in it though.
so would it be ok to spread it 6″s thick on top of our pasture (thick grasses, some buttercups, docks, thistles) without cardboard underneath if we don’t plant in it til spring? it would be great not to have to bother with the cardboard.
we have started moving it in rubble bags (no access to tractor!) which means that it is ending up in its new heap in wet, probably quite airless clods about 1/3 the size of a rubble bag. i find it hard to picture how much will be left after we make our 6″ deep beds, but if there is lots – should we turn/treat the heap in some way to help it rot down, or will we have turned it sufficiently in the moving process?
also i should cover the heap asap to keep out further rain?
Yes you could spread it 6" on top of grass and that should prevent any regrowth, except for any significant patches of couch grass, bindweed etc. Cardboard is not necessary with that thickness of organic matter and I just posted two more pics on the ‘No Dig Vegetables’ banner, of filling a bed with 6" organic matter and no cardboard. That one had wooden sides because it is a stand-alone bed, otherwise I do not use them.
The clods should break up over months when spred on the surface, I would knock them around as well, and they will decompose better in a heap if you can break them up as it sounds rather airless. Definitely cover because it is so wet already, worms will eventually sort it out
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