Beginner Gardening: Old Horse Manure, 2 by LeawoodGardener

LeawoodGardener wrote:
Scarletbean, I also envy you. I drive 20 miles to a stable to haul home 5 gallon buckets of horse manure for my garden - I make the trip several times in the fall, using the manure to amend the soil in my annual beds (I've added 3-4" of horse manure each fall, before having the beds tilled) before planting bulbs. When I started, the soil was very heavy clay. After several years of working in the horse manure, my soil is light and easily worked. The bulbs don't need the nutrients, but the annuals do great!. I've never concerned myself with the meds the horses at this stable receive, because I don't grow vegetables.

I also use horse manure as a topdressing in my shade garden. Each fall I have the lawn maintenance crew save my ground up leaves for me to spread on the bed. Then I apply a topdressing of manure, allowing it to 'settle in' over the winter and the rain and snow break it down. By spring, the crocus and other plants in the bed come up through the decomposing leaves and manure.