Donkey manure

[BulgarianBev]

My bulgarian neighbour disposes/burns the manure from his donkey shed rather than keeping it to rot down and add to their garden. In searching forums in BG I find that this is because of 1. seeds from the weeds that are in its feed.
2. Apparantly animal manure horse, donkey,cow, sheep etc produce a very acidic urine. Having toiled in their garden for many a year I'm sure they know best but as my garden lacks humus I am really tempted to ask him for his donkey muck. One forum reply did suggest that the heat from the composting would kill the weeds off, will it? Also I'm going fallow this year as the garden needs a good tidying up so if anyone can also suggest a good green manure that I could try in order to add the humus that is badly lacking.

[Two_Sheds]

seeds from the weeds

Apparently hosses don't have a very efficient digestive system, so weed seeds go straight through. The native Americans blamed the white man for introducing weeds via their horses

suggest a good green manure

A lot depends on your soil - acid or alkaline? Clay or sandy?

here's a linky - http://www.greenmanure.co.uk/

There are plenty of old threads about green manures if you fancy a browse. I tend to save my money and just use self-seeded limnanthes as a green manure now

[Dottie]

I laid horse manure on some beds last autumn and I read about the weed problem, but I've decided to just cover it for this year and plant thro' the cover. Just in the same way I covered the plot when getting rid of the couch grass and stuff, when I first took on the plot. Cardboard/newspaper is better than plastic, but I just use whatever I have handy. Although I also add leaf mulch and compost on top, before the cardboard/plastic.

Not sure I can call my range of flowers all around the plot a green manure, as I don't actually dig them in (compost heap as no dig beds). But I do use them to keep the beds covered, as well as attracting bees/insects and keeping the place looking jolly.

I leave some self-seeders like limnanthes and love-in-a-mist, but they are only allowed in certain beds, so there is still some order and colour scheme! However, I also sow loads of poppies and cornflowers in the autumn and transfer batches to different beds. These seeds I collect, as I don't want them seeding everywhere, as they they take up more space than than the other self seeders.