Thread: Horse Manure
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Old 08-01-2007, 03:21 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening
Farm1 Farm1 is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 735
Default Horse Manure

"Sacha" wrote in message

I used to have a book called The Untidy Gardener and the author

describes
asking someone to clean out the stables, saying she would be able to

use the
manure on her flower beds. Next thing she knew, he'd chucked it

straight
onto the beds from the stables and she was convinced all her plants

would be
damaged. She describes seeing them 'waving helplessly' from above

great
mounds of steaming manure. However, they survived, the winter and

the worms
did their work and all was well, though it's not a recommended

practice,
admittedly. And NB, these were flower beds, not veg beds.


I hope that the point of the story was that the author had learned how
to be a good gardener from that experience and that this lesson was
why she turned into an untidy gardener.

I get an attack of the irritations every time I see advice about the
'need' to rot horse manure..I always wonder about whether the person
giving the advice has ever experiemented or is just parroting book
learning.

It doesn't need rotting at all, ever. It may need some judicious
thought about placement but it can go on some spot or other in the
garden straight from the end of the horse's alimentary canal. I know
because I've used it that fresh and never found any detrimental
effect. It may not look pretty and the well rotted stuff does look
prettier but with mulch on top, who cares or will even notice?