"Jim xzy" wrote in message
. 4.11...
I've recently converted part of the wild field that was my back garden,
into vegetable beds. I dug in a fair amount of last year's compost into
the
clayey soil, but I think the soil still needs more organic matter, as it
is
still rather sticky. It's also very alkaline due to the limestone shale
substrate.

I have just been given a good quantity of horse stable manure. As there is
still a good few weeks before I start planting, will I be OK to dig the
manure into the soil without composting it? It appears to be predominantly
part-digested hay with some urine-soaked hay mixed in. It all appears to
be
a good few weeks old. It's not like the well-digested horse droppings that
you tyipcally find on the road where horse-riders have been.

TIA

Jim

Jim one of my daughters and her then husband, used to breed Arabs in
Staffordshire and they brought a couple with them in a horse box when they
came to visit us on the Isle of Wight.

They cleaned the box out with what was much the same as you described. It
went onto our compost heap and activated the proceeds. Our gardens as has
been reported here sooooooooooo many times are handkerchief size so in no
way could we use the stuff or dig it in straight away.

My advice? Well as is well known I am not the gardener of the house my wife
is, and who am I to argue with well over 50 years of experience? BUT, what
to do? Compost it.

Mike
South East Coast of the snow clear Isle of Wight


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I'm an Angel, honest ! The horns are there just to keep the halo straight.

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