"Tish" wrote in message
...

Hi Kylie,

I, unfortunately, learned the hard way that very fresh horse manure is
enough to burn plants to death - I'm the only person I know who can
kill rhubarb!

The main reason I've heard for composting horse poo before using it on
the garden is weed seeds. Horses are not ruminants, like cattle,
sheep and goats, and the horse gut processes food more quickly and
less efficiently than a ruminant gut. As a result, a lot more weed
seeds get through in viable condition. The heat of a well constructed
compost heap is thought to be sufficient to kill any weed seeds that
make it through Dobby's gut.

hm. when i get my next load i'll see if i can compost some, just to see how
it goes (i don't think i'm the world's best composter, quite frankly). but i
really didn't have weeds from the last lot - i spread it over the potatoes &
things like sheet mulch almost, & not a weed to be seen! (when i told my
neighbour she seemed surprised as well - so i don't know how unusual that
might be!!)

my neighbour amazes me in that she has loads of horse poo & NEVER uses it! i
say she's doing me a huge favour but she says i'm doing her a huge favour!!
Tish
- Also fighting the good fight against marauding wallabies

last evening they, and the rabbits(!), were gambolling about under the
trees, like in a picture book for goodness sake. it was very cute but also
completely _enraging_ :-))