Digging in manure

[noarguments]

Very basic question - DH has spread a load of manure all around the border - I had kind of planned of trying to mix it with compost but its gone down "neat" - will it be too much for the plants? And I'm hoping I can use a no-dig approach (I think I saw it on the telly) - out of laziness rather than gardening know-how - does that work?

I don't know what the correct way to do it is but I just dump manure on beds and round trees twice a year and leave it. It tends to turn up full of worms which start to work it. I've got a big raised bed and actually the layer of straw type bits have dried out to form a top that has kept moisture in over the last dry weeks.

You can leave it on top if you like. The benificial organisms will carry it down. You can ladle it on pretty thickly but make sure it is not touching plant/rose stems. Most current theories favour a non-dig approach, anyway!

Steve

I always leave it on top, it disappears pretty quickly.

Hooray - thank you!

Can I ask why not to let it touch roses? I think I left some at the base of my roses a couple of weeks ago!!

Story.

It's too concentrated if it's touching. Stems get burnt/scorched, etc

Steve

Thx Steve!

You should only put manure down if it's well rotted. You can tell this by whether it's got little red worms living in it. If it's still in big lumps with no worms then it's not ready to go onto the garden yet. Leave it in bags for another season.

As mentioned before, the high concentration of ammonia can 'burn' your plants if it touches them.
Also any rotting process uses nitrogen, which it will take from the soil beneath it, essentially robbing the plants of this resource.

Ahhh thanks voter Kiel, I was puzzling over an easy way to tell if manure is well rotted and red worms sounds like an easy thing to look for :)

Voter Kiel? Damn autocorrect!