Compost, Manure and everything else

Let me first start with it is a fundamental principal that you must replace any goodness to the ground that was taken out by growing vegetation. This is a basic skill that every grower must do to ensure good yields season to season.

However there are many manures and composts that can be used, not only natural manures as in cows, horses, chickens and pigs. You can also buy man made plant food, for example you can buy brands like 'Miracle-Gro' and 'Osmocote' which gives plants and veg all they need. This is really only good on a small scale as products like these cost a lot more money compared to a trailer load of manure from your local farmer. Of course they are not organic so would not suit everyone. (I use them, as I am not a 100% organic grower).

Everyone knows what cow and horse manure is, it's that steaming pile of crumbly, rotting poo that sits on a farm, this is great stuff if you can gain access to it, it comes in the trailer load and it spreads lovely on your veg patch. However it must be well rotted before use as it will burn most vegetation. So you must plan a head when you want to use it. It normally takes between 6 - 12 months for it to be usable. Some crops doesn't like the ground when it has been manured like carrots as these will fork and split. As good as cow manure is, it does have a disadvantage, it can sometimes carry weed seeds, so when your spreading it on your plot you are also spreading weeds. For me it is not a major concern as my plot is full of weeds anyway but for some people this is a BIG no no!


This takes me on to Chicken manure, you can buy chicken manure pellets from your garden centre, and most hardware shops like B&Q. I use chicken pellets as my main manure as they don't have any weed seeds in them, they are easily distributed, you can store them away in your shed and they don't cost much. If you struggle to get manure I would strongly recommend using chicken pellets as they are easily obtainable. You can also buy them in a organic form!


I don't know whether it would fit in the category of manure or compost, but I have a worm farm which I have in my back garden, two reasons why, they make a great compost also they make a tea, this tea makes a great instant plant food. It has to be diluted 10 parts to 1, this shows how strong it is. I haven't yet used any, so I can not tell you the results! If you want to own one of these please keep the farm from direct sun light as this will cook the worms alive! Also in the winter make sure that they are somewhere in which is frost free. There best temps are between 5 - 10 degrees, for the next few months my farm is safely tucked away in the shed.

Compost is great as it uses up all your kitchen waste, I think local councils should issue a free compost bin to each household as it reduces waste dramatically, after we got our new bin it cut our waste down to one black bin a fortnight. Any kitchen scrap which is a raw vegetation can go into the compost bin, any old paper and cardboard can go in there too. Give it a year and all that scrap will be turned into a brown crumbly heaven in which you can spread on your plot or use as a potting compost. If you don't have a compost bin you can dig a trench or hole and throw your scraps in there and dig them over, in a year this will be a thriving place for worms and plants. You can also buy compost from your local garden centre, not badly priced as well.

You can now buy lots of things from the garden centre that will get the goodness back into the ground. I have only scratched the service, you can buy things like 'Grow More' 'Fish,blood and bones' 'Nitrogen' and many more. One thing you should always remember, don't go season to season without giving the ground attention, you will only regret it as you won't have big yields and each year they will get smaller and smaller.