Your 'you know what' needs to be well rotted before you put it anywhere near you borders... Even then it is better to dig this in than use as a mulch.

By all means mulch, spent mushroom compost is very good for clay soil, it has chalk in it. If you use the pony manure only put it on the bare spots on your borders but only in the winter time when it can be broken down by the weather. Do not mulch if the ground is frozen, old broken bricks and mortar rubble will add drainage to your ground.

Don't worry too much about bark on the soil. It mixes in well, and helps break up compacted and heavy soils. It's wood chip that takes nitroen from the soil as it decomposes. Bark's pretty low in organic matter, and hardly affects the soil around it chemically. As MG says, ensure that any manure is well rotted. If it's strawy stuff, then in my opinion there's no better fertiliser, conditioner, or mulch. Worthy

Thank you all, your answers have been extremely helpful and straight forward! Apparently the manure is very well-rotted but I will take care where I put it! Thanks for reassuring me about the bark chips Worthy. I don't see anything being done for a while here. The ground is frozen solid under a few inches of frozen snow and ice. The sky is full of snow AGAIN :(( Oh, how I am looking forward to my holiday in Tenerife in less than 2 weeks now!! Thanks again! Kx

Just want to add that there's nothing wrong with using bark chips - any and all mulches placed on soil will steal nitrogen, though very little if the material is already well composted. If you're concerned and want to use bark chips, place it on damp soil in spring, having applied a good amount of something like Growmore to the soil underneath. This gives a nitrogen (though the NPK is balanced) fix for up to six weeks to any plants growing rapidly as Spring progresses.

Thanks Bamboo, great tip! I recently did some research on mulches and found out that Coco shells is one of the best, but then it's poisonous to dogs! I'll stick with bark chippings in future, thanks for the info about the Growmore, that's a good idea! :))

You might want to consider the environmental cost of shipping coco husks to the UK to be used for mulch/compost... these totally negate the good the husks can do. (At least in my opinion they do)

Well, that's a good point MG! Smell good though don't they ;)

No idea as I would not consider buying... It is rather like having organic veg. flown in from far flung parts.

I find coco shells not so readily available as they once were - I'm not too keen on them, don't like the pale colour, nor the way they tend to aggregate into a solid mat.

Yes, I will take your word for it Bamboo. They smell of chocolate MG! Mmmmm! I can't remember how many years it is since I've smelled them though, and that was only in a GC. I think you're right Bamboo, you don't see them so often now. The best thing I did when I moved here was add a tonne of spent mushroom compost. That was lovely stuff!

Indeed it is Karensusan...