Things You'll Need:
- Shovel or spade
- Garden fork
- Stakes
- Twine or garden string
- Garden tiller
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Step 1
The Royal Horticultural Society's "Essential Gardening Techniques" recommends determining your garden location at least one month before planting to allow materials time to compost. Ideally, you should prepare your ground in the autumn or early winter for spring planting.
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Step 2
If sources of manure are limited, mark the specific rows with stakes and twine or garden string. If your source of manure is unlimited, or if your garden plot is small, you may incorporate manure beneath all of the garden soil.
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Step 3
Dig a trench roughly one shovel blade deep (eight to ten inches), placing the soil next to the trench.
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Step 4
Add manure and composting materials such as leaf mould and garden compost to the trench, and cover over with the removed soil. Microorganisms in the soil will work to break down the manure and other ingredients into healthy compost.
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Step 5
Till the row or turn it with a shovel or garden fork before planting. This will incorporate the composted manure into the upper levels of the soil.
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Step 1
The Henry Doubleday Research Association's "Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening" recommends heaping manure in a location where it can remain undisturbed for several months.
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Step 2
Include animal manure and bedding, or hay and straw in the compost pile. If the bedding is dry, soak it well.
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Step 3
Cover the manure with a waterproof sheet or tarp, with the edges staked or weighed down to prevent the wind from removing the sheet.
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Step 4
Leave to compost for three months if the manure and bedding were sourced from an organic farm, or up to six months to allow for veterinary treatments and other chemicals to break down.
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Step 5
Remove the sheet and add the composted material to your garden as a nitrogen rich fertilizer and mulch.
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Step 1
In her 2003 article on Sheet Composting, Charlotte Torgovitsky recommends preparing your garden site by cutting down existing plants and leaving the cuttings on top of the soil.
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Step 2
Layer cardboard or newspaper on top of the cuttings and moisten well.
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Step 3
Add manure on top of the cardboard or newspaper as thickly as desired.
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Step 4
Layer grass clippings, leaves and kitchen waste on top of the manure, alternating layers of browns (carbon sources) and greens (nitrogen sources) to ensure that the microorganisms performing the composting process have access to both types of materials.
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Step 5
Cover the area with a layer of straw and leave to compost.
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Step 6
When ready to plant, work the composted material into your soil using a tiller or garden fork.
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Step 1
If manure is available only in limited quantities, add it to your compost bin or pile.
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Step 2
Keep the compost pile moist but not too wet. Composting materials should have the consistency of a squeezed out sponge.
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Step 3
Turn the compost frequently to add oxygen and to mix the composting ingredients.
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Step 4
Compost is ready to use when it is dark and crumbly and the original ingredients are no longer identifiable.
