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I have an old oil drum on my allotment, inherited from the previous owner. I also have a pile of horse manure that is slowly rotting. The barrel has sprung a leak so cannot be used as a water butt any longer but I wondered if it would be worth experimenting with it.

I thought I could add the manure and make a hot bed. So what I was thinking is to put in a layer of horse manure mixed with straw at the bottom about 90cm high. Then adding some normal compost on the top.

Anyone done this, any suggestions??

Don't want to ask a dumb question but why would you want a hot bed?

I did a hot bed (not out of a barrel but a giant raised bed). It was excellent and I actually grew a mellon last year (Yes last year remember how rubbish it was!!! and I'm in the N.E)

My advice is you need to turn the manure/straw for a few weeks before it's ready this'll get the bacteria/air through out the mix and you should see a sharp rise in temperature. Once it's nice n' hot it's ready. I'd put a dressing of soil on the top as well which you''d plant into as not many things like being planted direct in to muck. (pumpkins an exception)

I put some glass over the top as well to protect the mellons, as it was so cold last summer..they wont set flower below 15'C
Good Earth you want a hot bed to cheat our crappy weather and grow things like mellons in the cold N.E!


Just thought I'd insulate the barrel as well, you don't want it putting it's heat out the sides, just up the top .

TheGoodEarth wrote:Don't want to ask a dumb question but why would you want a hot bed?

To grow melons in.

Thanks for the advice Cheezy, most useful.

I made a slightly warm bed using half-degraded compost... I used it last year just to start seedlings in and it did very well to get an early start on my bits and pieces from February onwards.

Not a proper hotbed I know but still, it worked.

They do work, the Victorians knew their stuff. They used to build special pits against the North facing wall of their orangeries and greenhouses and put well rotting manure in, this would help heat the green house in spring and into winter. True green heating. And they used to grow pineapples,peaches etc.

There's an example down here in Heligan Garden. Part of the pot boys job was to stay up all nught to turn the fresh manure regularly. It is kept in a seperate compartment made of brick at the back of the hortt bed and the heat goers through holes in the dividing qwall. They gre pineapples in that one. Don't know if they have actually starte growing as I haven't been back for a few years

Pete

I saw that when I visited Heligan. Oh what you can do when you have an army of gardeners doing all the hard work!

I'm a gardener out of time - I always wanted to work somewhere like Heligan but as my Dad said them days were dying out when he was a boy because people no longer had the money to pay enough manpower to do the work needed - and the manpower was no longer available after 1918 for some reason like a major war. That means I'm about 100 years out of place in history. Sad ain't it.