What fertilizer/soil improver do you use?

[pipscariad]

Now that at long last I have been able to start working my plot again, I need to add something to the soil, and just wondered what you all use? In an ideal world I would add that oft quoted 'well rotted manure', except that I don't know how to get any, daft as it sounds when I live out in the sticks surrounded by farms! Apparently, the price of fertilizer these days makes farmers reluctant to part with their 'black gold', or so I was told by a farmers wife when I enquired. So, I now have some choices - seaweed or my lovely compost, but will that do? It seems a bit late to be adding seaweed - I went down to the beach over a month ago to gather some, and the piles I had been eyeing only a week before had clean disappeared, washed away by the tide (as it does ). There is some back now, but it's that big stalk kind, not fine stuff.

Will compost do the job? Or do I need to buy (gulp!) something specialist? Advice welcomed please!

[jackie j]

If you have lots of farms or stables ask all of them not all will charge for manure. I buy soil codiyioner from a local garden centre for 99p for a small ish bag will look later to see what the quantity is. I dont always spread it but just put it in the hole where I am putting a plant, or a line for seeds but generaly only use it for plants.
Look in the local papers for adverts from farms as we have had one or two offering to deliver manure for free and one to fetch it your self in bags.

[Two_Sheds]

i only use garden compost, put in the planting holes, not spread all over willy-nilly

[zazen999]

I am on Clay at the lottie,

I use garden compost in the hole and on potatoes to earth up
coffee grounds esp on the alliums
use cardboard to fill bean trenches,
the odd box of chicken pellets if I can get any on the cheep for brassicas
lime, borax and epsom salts get added before the start of the season [without the lime for the spud bed],
I have a comfrey bed and use that and any nettles as a fertiliser,
and if I was anywhere near the sea I'd add seaweed as a mulch,
and I sieve sand, coffee ground and home made compost with clay into deep holes for carrots.

[piskieinboots]

as above, I use my own compost in the planting holes - I also use Maxicrop at times

[pipscariad]

I am on Clay at the lottie,

I use garden compost in the hole and on potatoes to earth up
coffee grounds esp on the alliums
use cardboard to fill bean trenches,
the odd box of chicken pellets if I can get any on the cheep for brassicas
lime, borax and epsom salts get added before the start of the season [without the lime for the spud bed],
I have a comfrey bed and use that and any nettles as a fertiliser,
and if I was anywhere near the sea I'd add seaweed as a mulch,
and I sieve sand, coffee ground and home made compost with clay into deep holes for carrots.

Wow, that's an impressive list there!

So, I'm guessing that my compost should do the job, I'll start transporting it down to the plot then (if my back can take it after yesterdays digging ). Yup, I'll keep a look out for manure too, but very little offered hereabouts unless I travel a fair way.

Thanks for replies so far

[Flummery]

Garden compost is a hidden treasure. It's brilliant stuff. I only used this for many years, but now I have the half lottie I have access to cow manure shovelled over by the local farmer. I use this on the lottie but still sometimes barrow down some of my dalek stuff. It's seriously under-rated in my opinion.

[SlugLobber]

I rotate poo piles at my field, so use stable manure. I also add rotten down shavings (that have been peed on). Together, they are proving to be a fabulous growth medium and soil improver! On top I sprinkle all my coffee grounds and am very naughty in that I often throw used teabags directly onto the onion bed outside my kitchen door!

The shavings I brought home in paper feed bags, which rotted down from the rain we had, so that went on two flower beds. I also have my own compost, the first one being ready to use about now - hurrah!

Just a thought for those getting their manure from stables. Ask them if the horses have been wormed. If you get poo containing Ivermectin, it is lethal to birds and dogs (the latter especially have a tendency to gobble poo!) and also earthworms. Other wormers are also toxic, but not to the same extent. I keep my 'worm poo' pile separate and never use it on the garden.

[SlugLobber]

If you have lots of farms or stables ask all of them not all will charge for manure.

If anyone tries charging you for manure, offer to take your own bag and point out that you are doing them a favour! Large yards have to pay for muck-heap removal!

[greendean]

apart from the horse manure i get from my mother in law (her horse that is) i use a product called 6x. it is concentrated horse manure. can be used any time with no risk of scorching the plants. it doesn't add bulk as such but is a good organice fertalizer. and it stinks!

[bluemoon]

We have managed with just homemade compost (but lots of it) and one bed in four being put down to an overwintering green manure. It was initially a financial thing, but we've continued like this for about 4 years now and the soil seems to be very fertile.

[nemo]

i use chicken manure from an organic egg farm .i compost it for a year before use i also use about 15 car trailers of seaweed i only live about 1000 meters from the shore .i never harvest it i only take it after it gets washed up on the shore the flat seaweed is called kelp .it edible but i mince it for the chickens we have 4 liquid feeds nettle feed( high in nitrogen )seaweed feed(high in micro nutrients and boron)comfy feed (high in potash)manure feed(complete the nutrients not covered previously.
BUT IT IS BETTER TO FEED THE SOIL AND NOT JUST FEED THE PLANT