On 2012-02-06 14:28:33 +0000, Jim xzy said:

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 would be a good filler for runner bean trenches but otherwise I
don't use unrotted/uncomposted manure on food crops.

Avoid putting unrotted manure where you're going to grow root crops, it's
too rich for them and will make carrots/parsmips etc fork and split.

It's not like the well-digested horse droppings that
you tyipcally find on the road where horse-riders have been.

I wonder if you are confusing "well digested" (by a horse) with what
gardeners mean by well rotted, or well composted manure. Which is the very
opposite, from freshly dropped.

In well rotted or composted manure, the droppings and any straw or
bedding should all have lost their original shape and colour and be one
indistinguishable dark mass.

Janet.