Paul Hume wrote:

>>We used to have horses and used the manure to enrich a garden. We
>>dropped in the seeds, watered regularly and couldn't keep up with a
>>10x12 little patch! If you can cart some away one or twice a year from
>>a stable, you may need nothing else. And it only costs time -- and a
>>truck wash.
>>
> Careful...you need to let it sit and age, at least a bit, like a good
> merlot (g). Main issue of aging and regularly spading manure before
> using it for fertilizer is that horses eat (shock!) hay, grass, etc.
> even weeds. These species (as with some wild flora that depend on deer
> to do the same thing) have developed seeds that remain viable after
> passing through Dobbin's intestines. Some species (I forget which)
> depend on it, and their seeds won't germinate UNLESS they have been
> softened up by the digestive juices.
>
> So fresh horse manure can introduce a high weed population to your
> garden. Hence the bucolic custom of the manure pile.
>
> But still, yes, bravo. Horseshit - it's not just for usenet any more!
>
> Paul

True. We had the horses for quite a while before the garden. So the
pile was a good mix of a bit of fresh on top to already composted dirt
on the bottom. Then we tilled it in. Almost no weeds at all. Which is
good, because you can't get topsoil without having weed seeds in it. Of
course this is Michigan, so even where it is sandy, just spit out the
seed and watch the plant grow.

Zsarnok