"Trish Brown" wrote in message
...
Funny you mention that.

I used to mulch with stable manure (mixed liberally with wood-shavings)
and it remains my favourite mulch to this day. Sadly, we no longer keep
horses, so I've had to revert to paddock-pickings (ie pure poo) to bring
home and rot. This feels *much* hotter to me than the shavings mixture.

feels hotter in the air, do you mean?

it makes sense to me that different mulches have different effects in every
way (including perhaps on air temp). well, i'm not sure, but have noted that
you've had a similar experience. (now we both feel more normal ;-)

I'd never discussed it with anyone before, but I think we've hit upon
something here. Would it be worth investing in a bale of sugar cane mulch
to cover the poo thinly and (perhaps?) reduce the temp?

oh, my garden's huge - i can't really afford sugar cane mulch on it :-(
(also, i loathe the way it comes packaged in plastic!!!!!! i hate
plastic!!!!!!! arghhh!)

what i was doing instead was using ordinary straw after it's been through
the chook house. it's a fairly light colour & while the sugar cane is rather
choppy & nice, i'm mostly pretty happy with ordinary straw, considering it's
so cheap & plus the chooks use it anyway. except the current batch, which
evidently got rained on at the shop. (sigh). which makes it fine for the
garden but if i can't dry it out & it goes mouldy i'll have to get another
lot for the chook house.
ta!
kylie