"Wally" wrote...

We have a local farmer/stables that leaves the straw/horse manure out for
at least a year to mature so it's instantly useable, and he delivers it
at £12 per trailer load. Wonderful stuff, we get two loads a year which I
dig into one quarter of our plot...we use a 4 year rotation (so it goes
on the potato bed every year). Funny enough I was talking to the Shepherd
that help deliver it today in Sainsbury's about ordering two loads but he
said with all this rain and the F & M they can't get to it yet.
Ask around your site and see if there is anyone like that in your area
but do make sure it's well rotted so little straw shows.

Thanks Bob, on our allotment a local stables bring there horse waste
and dump it in a heap for us all to help ourselves.
The problem is, it is not straw, it is woodshavings and is quite fresh,
not
rotted at all.
A lot of my neighbours grab it and dig it in to there plots but I'm not
too
sure that it doing any good.

Fresh sawdust will remove nitrogen from the soil to aid in it's own rotting
only giving it back much later in the process. Best to heap it up and
sprinkle Nitrochalk* on it to speed rotting but still leave it for a year.
* available in small lots from your local friendly farmer or from a Farmers
type shop.
Perhaps you could persuade your allotment comittee to purchase some for the
woody heap.
Well rotted sawdust & manure is wonderful stuff for breaking up clay type
soils BTW.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK