In article , Mark Allison
nomail@please.? writes
Hi,

A local farmer has 40 tons of manure which has been rotting for three years.
Is this stuff worth putting on the garden? I have a heavy clay soil, and
planned on mixing this with some sharp sand. he also said he could offer me
fresh stuff, "as and when it comes in". Would I be better off waiting for
the fresh stuff?

Grab some of that well rotted manure while you have the chance, add a
little sharp sand as you have already planned, also some roughage like
old straw, fine shreddings or what have you. Then work as much of the
mixture into the top of your clay soil as you can. If you can do that
before the turn of the year it will have most of the winter to work its
way in and you should have a tillable top surface by next spring.

You could do the same thing with fresh manure at this time of the year,
but if you can get some which has already mature, half of the job is
already done for you. At other times, fresh stable or farmyard manure is
best stacked and allowed to work down for several months at least.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.