horse $#&%

I can get as much composted horse manure as I want for free. Is this a good idea to build up my garden or should I seek other types of manures and compost?

That's great stuff, but it's important to have it well composted before digging it into your soil (should look brown and crumbly and smell like rich dirt and hardly at all like horse poo).

Hi Zulu, you are so lucky to have that gardeners gold to hand, it is the best thing you could add to your garden, but as said above, it must be well rotted, if it is fresh manure (horse poo) then have it delivered and store it somewhere away from the house in a pile, it will get really hot in the middle of the pile, this is good as the heat helps to rot it down, after a few weeks, get the garden fork out and turn the pile so that the stuff on the bottom
ends up on the top, this will help to speed up the composting, it should be ready to use when there is no bad smell from it and as said, it resembles a crumbly soil mix you would but at the store, you can either then add it to your garden as a mulch (keep an inch or so away from the stems or trunks of plants) or when you dig the beds or borders, you lift a spade depth of soil, add about 3/4 inches of the manure and then ad the soil back on top, as you dig, the manure then gets mixed into your soil to improve the nutrients, help retain moisture and keeps some air circulation going on in your soil, all plants will thrive on this stuff, however, in the veg plot, some veges like root veg dont like newly manured soil, (carrots, parsnips etc, it causes some types of these veg to grow forked roots instead of long straight ones, but end of season you can add it to these veg areas and by planting time in spring, the parsnips and carrots etc will be fine as the winter months allow the soil to adjust to the manuring. go get the stuff and thank your lucky stars for it too. good luck, WeeNel.

WeeNel, thanks for adding your thoughts! I didn't know that about carrots and parsnips... you could grow some interesting looking ones that way, I suppose, but they'd be hard to peel! :-)

Thanks for the advice from across the big pond,WeeNell. I take it you have the same type of climate I'm trying to grow in. Today I measured 2ft of snow sitting on my old beds of vegies. Been a long hard winter here in the north east. Got my seeds started indoors at least

I learned it must be composted the hard way. Everything in the garden
tasted like well... sh@t

You need to find materials considered 'brown' to mix with it 50% for the best
carbon/nitrogen ratio in your compost pile. Things like wood chips, straw,
shredded newspaper.

I own a horse and avoid using her poo for a week after worming her.
A lot of wormers/vaccines have a warning about not for use on animals
intended for human consumption. I'm probably just paranoid

The warning is for NOT to use for x number of days/week after worming, in-case the worms are still alive in either the animal ready to slaughter for eating, or still in the poo as they can stay alive in the poo for a few days, also the medication needs to pass through the animal as well, but normally they die within 48 hours inside the animal or as droppings, I never add anything to the horse manure when I have been lucky enough to get it, but it needs to be left as a heap , covered by black polythene if the weather is cool to allow it to rot down to a crumbly matter like bought compost in texture, turn the heap every so often, I do it say once a month so the hot stuff in the middle is then brought to the top then this helps the rotting process speed up, depending the size of the heap and the temp, it can be used after 4 to 6 months, but in winter if the soil is not frozen, I will add it without rotting down, to my empty veg beds as a mulch on top and let the weather/worms etc take it into the soil or even dig trenches a spade deep and chuck about 4/6 inch of manure into the trench and replace the soil, it will be well rotted down by the time I want to plant, hope this helps you out, good luck. WeeNel.