Beginner Gardening: Old Horse Manure, 1 by scarletbean

scarletbean wrote:
Thanks to all for responding!! I plan to take advantage of a beautiful weekend here in east TN to load up my wheel barrow as many times as I can. WeeNel, thank you for such detailed instructions, I probably would not have used enough if not for your advice.
Doublecc, you bring up an interesting point. I have wondered about the same thing in the bags of manure that you get from any of the big retail stores: Where does this poop come from, and what kind of drugs/chemicals etc are being consumed by the animals? Luckily, I know the 2 horses my neighbor used to keep were in good health and in the 3 years they were here didn't have any medications. Yay!
Funny, most people would not be happy to be in close proximity to a large pile of poo. Lucky me! This same neighbor has a vegetable garden, but prefers to buy fertilizers and insecticides to garden in what she feels is the 'right' way. Fine with me, she is happy to get rid of the mess in the barn and I am happy to take it to my yard and garden my 'right' way.
I am hoping that adding this manure to my flower beds will make a difference. The soil is so clay-ey and there are big chunks of some flakey type of crumbly rock. Zinnias, sunflowers,cosmos,and other annuals grown from seeds did nicely the first year, but the next year, they were disappointing to say the least. I don't think weather was a factor, since it was about the same, but maybe the dirt is "tired" and adding manure and homemade compost will make a difference this year.