To manure, or to not manure?

Hello again,

This site has been very helpful and I thank all who maintain, create, participate, and share. If I hadn't stumbled upon permaculture videos and sites about ten years ago I would probably never had done what I needed to do to get here. I'm finally getting to do it instead of just thinking about doing it.

I plan on turning a 1/4 acre of lawn into a garden this spring. I'm anxious to turn the soil over and try to cook off some of the seed bank under plastic.

I have a tractor, subsoiler, two bottom plow, rake, disk, and back blade,

I have a few sources of manure on the farm and a bunch of loose straw and hay that was cleaned out of the barn last year when I purchased the property. I'm also willing to truck in material to get started.

The photo of inside the riding ring (100' x 35') seems like packed down horse manure that has accumulated over fifty or so years.

The pile of horse manure pictured has been outside for at least eight months. It is full of little red worms and has not been turned.

The native soil is odessa / schoharie type. Silt loam down to six inches or so and then clay or clay silt loam for many feet.  

Is it a good idea to mix these materials into the native soil as is?

I want to go no till after the soil is in good shape for veg and berry production. These beds for now will be market garden type beds and could be interplanted eventually.

Should I plow some of this material into the silt loam?

Thank you for looking.

I would for sure

How much experience do you have? 1/4 acre is a huge garden if you haven’t had much experience.

I would add a couple inches of the older manure and work it in.  Since you have machinery, I would just use tillage instead of plastic to kill weeds.  I don’t like plastic. That depends on what kind of weeds you  have though. If you till it earlly and wait until you get enough rain to get the weeds up, then till and plant, you will get a lot of seeds sprouted and killed. You may not even have a weed problem. If you have burmuda grass, you will have to till repeatly for a month or two or use black plastic. You could plant squash and melons through the plastic after you are sure everything is dead. Whatever you do with most of it, I would plant at least a small garden this spring. I’d also plant some fruit and nut trees this spring. Some take a long time to produce.

I wouldn’t build many beds the first season. I am not a fan of continual notill. I would try to use as little as possible though, Your machinery is a huge asset. Maybe try some both ways.

Not everyone will agree with this, and I hope you get other opinions.

First of all, I'm no expert. But among my first steps would be to consult with the local ag extension office. Not that you need to follow their advice, but they could give you some good information to mull over.

It looks to me that your new garden area was once a horse paddock. Therefore, the ground is most likely compacted to some degree or other. So as a start, I'd run a plow over it, wait 2 weeks, spread the manure, and then disc it in. Your ag agent could better advise you if two weeks is long enough to wait, 3 or 4 might be better. It depends upon the grass type and the conditions. In the meantime I'd run  soil pH, P, and K tests. The ag agent should be able to do that, or tell you where to have it done inexpensively. It would t surprise me that you'll need to disc in some lime.

Personally i haven't had a lot of success using plastic to solarize the soil. Some people swear by it. I usually just swear at the plastic. I've tried it, but no longer go that route. Besides, a 1/4 acre is a lot of plastic sheeting.

I don't think I'd use plowing as my first line of annual soil prep. Discing might be a better option with that clay under base. I'd check with my ag agent. But as I said, I'm no expert. I have no problem with plowing as a start, then discing or some other sort of tilling afterward.

I'd consider doing a shallow perc test, homestyle, just to see how compacted it is 6" down. So your subsoiler might come in handy if you have a clay pan due to years of  horses.

If your manure is years old or has been weathering outside unprotected, it may not have a high nitrogen content. But it should still be very beneficial. I'd surely use it!