My fathers routine was always the same, double digging in the autumn, for
the winter to break down, but we used to do one spit depth of soil out of
the ground and piled up, then the second spit depth was broken up, on this
was piled usually around 6 inches of well rotten muck, and then the next top
spit layer was placed on top of the manure. Pretty much the classic double
digging and manuering routine I thought. Bloody hard work though, and all I
used to do was the muck shovelling, from the muck heap to the trenchs and
back again.

I thought this idea had sort of fallen out of favour recently though, since
the breaking up of the sub-soil is something that really didn't need to be
done every year, if you are careful not to compress is during the year too
much, then a light dig and covering with manure to let the worms incorporate
over winter was supposedly, not only easier, but better for the soil !!!

Duncan

"osssrtvcdse" wrote in message
...
Double digging ground that will eventually be borders, I have access to as
much well rotted [1] horse manure as i like. Two questions, How much
should
I add? and At what depth should it be added? I know rotovating it in would
be best, but this aint an opption, just a layer added at some
point........Its hard enough work to start with!

I had been thinking of a 2" layer about 6" from the top.

The ground, I think is a slightly sany loam, that has been compacted to
near
a concrete state.

[1] The Manure is black and the straw in most is unrecognisable, their is
little to no smell

How quickly can I plant into this, providing I make sure no manure is
touching the new root ball.