Horse ****! Horse manure and stuff

Pumpkins grow well with manure, most plants do. From what I read it has to be "well rotted".

I will be planting my seeds in about 6 months time which should give manure time to rot down.

There seems to be a lot of science involved with gardening and growing plants nowadays, also a lot of conflicting information about manure in general. The way I see it is that this process has been going on for a long time so really if you think about it, horse does its business in the field and something grows around or through it. Can't be very complicated.

I went to Ealing Riding School with a couple of those pink sacks that the council give us for recycling green/garden waste that they then sell back to us as compost, a spade and a fork.

To be honest I thought that the Riding school would be a bit snooty but they all were really friendly and down to earth. They also had loads of horse manure, some rotted, some not. I got some not so rotted, but it wasn't steaming, so wasn't that fresh!

I filled up my bags and off I went. Thanks everyone at Ealing Riding School. (But I think they are grateful too!).

This is where the science and myths/legends of gardening come in, some say that the manure can be spread and the worms will drag it down, others say leave it rot and spread it in spring, others say lots of things.

I opted to dump it somewhere in the garden and see what happens. I also put Mr Pumpy in there as he needed a resting place and I thought it only fitting, its what he would have wanted!

As you can see from the photo, its kind of light in colour (you can also see the old pumpkin). The little plastic things are protecting Tulip bulbs from the Squirrels, I don't think they are clever enough to read blogs so they won't know (and don't tell them).

I'm only hoping that 6 months will be enough, I just don't know. Some say 5 years, others say I need a pile 3 foot high. We can only wait and see.