Horse Manure

[nick the grief]

Good idea! I don't have a heated propagator! Mmmm will have to hunt out some planking, I think I have a couple of old window frames and panes hanging around! How deep does the compost on top of the manure need to be? Any idea?

Now your asking Squirrel,

Don't know if you can read this OK if not I'll post it somewhere Else & give you the link. This is from my old book thats great for this sort of info. the scanners knac... er broken so I took a foto with the fone



The blurb that goes with it is as follows:-

"Very much more use can be made of the coldframe if the ground is prepared as a hotbed. To do this, soil should be taken out to a depth of 18" and the space filled with 9" of strawy manure, if it is available, or materila from the Rot heap or leaves that are decaying and therefore should give off heat. this is trodden down very firmly so that heat is conserved & then a layer of 6" of sandy soil . The heat generated will encourage growth so that early salad crops can be raised and seeds that are normally sown in heat such as leeks and celery can be raised on the hotbead instead"

Practical gardenng & food Production in pictures by Richard Sudell

You could add a bit more if you wanted I guess & the cold frame will insulate it from the worst of the weather. If you lined it will polystrene it would be better still.

Hope that helps