Hello, all, I hope this info will be helpful. First, let me mention
that I am a Certified Square Foot Gardening instructor, and have also
written an ebook on composting. That is not to say that I am flawless,
or know all, but I believe I can shed some more light here.

Composting quality does depend on the content put into it. First of
all, to get a good blend for composting, you should use about 2/3
brown material, such as wood byproducts (supplies carbon), and 1/3
green items such as veggies and hedge trimmings for nitrogen. The
nitrogen rich greens will produce heat and nourish the organisms that
will compost the carbon materials. For this reason, it is important to
aerate and mix your compost every couple of weeks. This could take as
little as 3 months if you have a good "hot" composting pile. It needs
to have the right amount of moisture, also.

You want your compost to be a blend of things. First, you should have
about 1/3 plant materials, 1/3 manure such as horse or chicken, and
1/3 greens. That means the 2/3 carbon materials I mentioned above can
be half wood and half manure. Now, about the manure, it is also best
to blend, so you can have cow, horse, and chicken blended. This means
you have an ultimate blend of three types of manure, and three types
of byproducts composting. This will provide *all* the nutrients you
will need for your garden without adding any fertilizers as long as
you do two things:

1. Rotate your planting, rather than planting the same thing in the
same place. Each plant depletes different nutrients

2. Add a good scoop of compost every time you replant.

This has been proven in the Square Foot Gardening method for years,
and people who practice SFG religiously have great success with this.
Of course, you could check out http://www.squarefootslo.com for more
info lol. There was some good information posted in this thread about
nutritional value, and that is why it is important to blend as much as
possible. The nutrients from just one animal in one area will not be
adequate nutrition, nor will simply composting leaves. A good compost
is even hard to find in the stores. You would have to find one with a
blend of items. Leaf mold, or cold composting, is beneficial as well,
but not as complete, and takes much longer.

Miracle grow can burn your plant's roots if not really diluted. It is
a "salt" and can also do damage to the soil with buildup. It is fine
for a quick fix very diluted, and for foliar application, but you are
better off with more natural things like blood meal and bone meal.
They don't last long, but are easily assimilated by the plants faster.
Yellow can be a combination of things, including iron deficiency,
nitrogen, overwatering, sunburn, infestation, depending on what it
looks like and how severe. Straight manure is hot because of the
ammonia in it (urea) and can burn plants if not properly composted.
Composting in a regulated pile will actually kill weed seeds when it
gets up to 140 degrees.

Short answer, yes, *good* compost is enough for your garden if mixed
in sufficient proportion lol.

Randy wrote in message ...
I have horses too and have tried using the composted manure. The
problem I had was the bermuda seed. At first I thought regular weeding
would take care of it but once it gets established it takes over the
garden. If you do plan on using horse manure be sure not to compost any
manure for at least a week after worming. I am told that the medication
does not break down when composted and can kill earthworms. -RP

Jay wrote:
I have horses and an abundant supply of manure. I hot compost the
manure, turning frequently, until it is no longer heating.

My question is, is this a good source of fertilizer, (nitrogen, et.
al.), for my veggie garden? I'm fairly new to gardening but my plants
look rather weak and yellow. I started the garden with lots of
compost but didn't add any other fertilizer. Is compost enough or
not?