On Mon, 05 Sep 2011 17:09:13 GMT, Baz wrote:

We are clearing this first load onto the potato bit/patch now as we have a
cuppa between barrows. All of the first load, and it won't go far enough I
don't think, but it is the biggest patch. Just have to see won't we.

Thanks
Baz

A cuppa between barrows? 6x6x2 is an awful lot of barrows so that's an
awful lot of cuppas.What goes in comes out and Mr Flowerdew says that
it's only the first of the day that's worth putting on the compost
heap

AFAIK, deciding whether the manure is rotted enough is a simple case
of straw and smell. If you can see a lot of straw in the pile or it
smells lilke horse s*** it's not properly rotted. But that should
only be a problem in the spring. At this time of year, when you'll
probably leave it to do the job through the winter, just spread it up
to 3 inches thick over the soil surface and leave it. Fork it in
around early December.

You must have some potato patch. At 3 inches thick over the soil your
first 6x6x2 feet pile should cover about 250 square feet. At more than
3 inches thick, I'd suggest you're overdoing things a bit.

Cheers
Jake
==============================================
Gardening at the dry end (east) of Swansea Bay
in between reading anything by JRR Tolkien.

www.rivendell.org.uk