Mojo recovery - recommend me something for 2018

[Baldy]

If I knew the density of manure I could work out the volume allowing 10% for bulking

... oh dear oh dear

Estimating Manure Density - eXtension

... and hello Sparrow - glad to see you back and sorry to hear about Dobbin...

[Lumpy]

My mojo is a distant memory Sparrow so try not to worry as it just adds pressure when you need it the least.
I'm cheating (thanks Balders see my thread on the general board) and buying in my plants to see if less intensive thinking and doing tempts the MJ back.

[Cadalot]

... oh dear oh dear

Estimating Manure Density - eXtension

I'm not that interested that I would find an Average by filling a bucket!! - I will take a photo when if comes, there are five of us interested and it's £90 for 20 tonne we are all going to arrange to be there so we can shift it - I'm so lucky my new plot is the first one inside the gate

[Baldy]

I'm not that interested that I would find an Average by filling a bucket!! - I will take a photo when if comes, there are five of us interested and it's £90 for 20 tonne we are all going to arrange to be there so we can shift it - I'm so lucky my new plot is the first one inside the gate

mildly disappointed... engineering hero hrmmm...

[Cadalot]

OK a little research and it seems an average weight for manure is 0.4 tonne per cubic metre

So if my oppo has his cost right at £90/ tonne for a 20 tonne load then that would be 20/0.4 = 50 cubic metres !!!

So that equates to a cube 10m x 5m on plan 1m high or a smaller area on plan of raised in the middle higher than a metre.

15 wheelbarrow loads in a single cubic metre of concrete which would be level so say 10 heaped with Sh..I mean manure

Level Wheelbarrow = 50x15 = 750 trips / 5 of us = 125 trips with full load from heap to plot

Heaped Wheelbarrow = 50x10 = 500 trips / 5 of us = 100 trips with full load from heap to plot

So double distance walked for return trip to pick up next load

Ummmmm I will have to check the math when I get back from the allotment but if I'm right then I think we only want 10 tonne and not 20 Tonne

Balders I hope my Engineering street cred is restored

[Chestnut]

It does of course depend on the size of your wheelbarrow.....
Typical builders barrow 65 litres, but 200 litre(or even 350) are available!

[Cadalot]

Chestnut Only have a Builders Barrow that's the whats the 15 wheelbarrow loads in a single cubic metre of concrete is based upon. So many variables, lets just say its a slot of Manure and it's going to take some time to shift and I'm extremely happy as I have plots 1 & 1A

[Penellype]

OK a little research and it seems an average weight for manure is 0.4 tonne per cubic metre

So if my oppo has his cost right at £90/ tonne for a 20 tonne load then that would be 20/0.4 = 50 cubic metres !!!

So that equates to a cube 10m x 5m on plan 1m high or a smaller area on plan of raised in the middle higher than a metre.

15 wheelbarrow loads in a single cubic metre of concrete which would be level so say 10 heaped with Sh..I mean manure

Level Wheelbarrow = 50x15 = 750 trips / 5 of us = 125 trips with full load from heap to plot

Heaped Wheelbarrow = 50x10 = 500 trips / 5 of us = 100 trips with full load from heap to plot

So double distance walked for return trip to pick up next load

Ummmmm I will have to check the math when I get back from the allotment but if I'm right then I think we only want 10 tonne and not 20 Tonne

Balders I hope my Engineering street cred is restored

I'd be more inclined to work out how much you need using the thickness of manure required and the area to be covered rather than the number of wheelbarrows. I know from making a hotbed myself how astonishingly many wheelbarrows are needed even for a small area. Wheelbarrows are smaller at the bottom than the top, giving quite a big false impression of volume.

(Technically your "cube" is a rectangular cuboid, or rectangular parellelepiped - there are several other names for it as well! )

[Cadalot]

(Technically your "cube" is a rectangular cuboid, or rectangular parellelepiped - there are several other names for it as well! )

Penellype you have to remember that non nerd and scientific people read this so an in-regular cube is easy for them to visualise, the volume of a standard builders wheelbarrow takes into account the bi directional trapezoidal prism (or sloping sides) of the builders barrow and having been moved twice the Sh.. manure will have bulked by about 10% anyway

Bulking (Bulked) = Increase in volume of material (swelling) when dug or moved as air enters the mixture.

Bottom line is it's gonna be a lot of stuff to move

[Penellype]

Penellype you have to remember that non nerd and scientific people read this so an in-regular cube is easy for them to visualise

I know, hence putting it in brackets with a - just being pedantic.

Good luck with moving that lot!

[Snoop Puss]

Cadalot, have any of you thought of hiring a dumper truck for the day?

Back to the mojo: mine has been missing a lot this year for assorted reasons. And now I don't know whether to revive it or not. I've been planning for next year in my head but haven't put anything on paper yet. Not sure if it's going to be worth it. If it doesn't rain soon, there won't be any point. Long-term forecast now goes up to the end of January: 9 mm of rain due in a couple of weeks and the same again spread over a couple of days in December. And that's it. All told this year, I bet we haven't even reached 200 mm in total. Local insect and bird populations are plummeting and there are no rabbits. And I've only heard one fox and seen evidence of one boar. The local spring, which reputedly never ever runs dry, is down to a trickle.

[Mr Bones]

The biggest gardening lift I've had in years Sparrow was going no-dig. It's interesting to work in a completely different style and loads easier to manage the weeds. The crop quality improved too. Hope you get your mojo back

[Chestnut]

If lack of forecast rain is what’s destroying your mojo, then maybe you could start off some drought tolerant plants as a kind of long term ‘insurance plan’.
Prickly pears spring to mind, but I am sure a bit of a hunt on internet would come up with a few others.

Hopefully that’ll get ‘sod’s law’ on your side and you’ll have great growing weather next year ;-)

[Snoop Puss]

Sounded like a great idea, Chestnut, till I read this in Wikipedia:

Prickly pears (mostly Opuntia stricta) were originally imported into Australia in the 18th century for gardens, and were later used as a natural agricultural fencing[6] and in an attempt to establish a cochineal dye industry. They quickly became a widespread invasive weed, eventually converting 101,000 sq mi (260,000 km2) of farming land into an impenetrable green jungle of prickly pear, in places 20 ft (6.1 m) high. Scores of farmers were driven off their land by what they called the "green hell"; their abandoned homes were crushed under the cactus growth, which advanced at a rate of 1,000,000 acres (4,046.9 km2; 1,562.5 sq mi) per year.

[Penellype]

Sounded like a great idea, Chestnut, till I read this in Wikipedia:

Prickly pears (mostly Opuntia stricta) were originally imported into Australia in the 18th century for gardens, and were later used as a natural agricultural fencing[6] and in an attempt to establish a cochineal dye industry. They quickly became a widespread invasive weed, eventually converting 101,000 sq mi (260,000 km2) of farming land into an impenetrable green jungle of prickly pear, in places 20 ft (6.1 m) high. Scores of farmers were driven off their land by what they called the "green hell"; their abandoned homes were crushed under the cactus growth, which advanced at a rate of 1,000,000 acres (4,046.9 km2; 1,562.5 sq mi) per year.

Jeez - that's a "no" then!

Nothing so disheartening as weather that is totally uncooperative and shows no sign of improving. I hope you get some rain soon.