I put peat moss and composted manure in my flower beds too. Works great for me!

Composted manure is preferable to uncomposted because a)if it's fully composted it won't have weed seeds b)it's not stinky and c)it's not "hot" as in it doesn't burn the plants with ammonia or whatever.

Different manures have varying nutrient concentrations. Usually the more nitrogen, the more you pay. Sheep manure is the highest in nitrogen and generally costs more than steer manure. I find steer manure has a nicer texture and is not as sticky, and does not smell at all. Sheep manure is a wee bit stinky at first. Rabbit manure is also very good but I don't know of anywhere to get it already composted. The cheapest of all is mushroom manure, which has already been mostly drained of nutrients by growing mushrooms in it. It's still a very good additive though.

Hope that sheds some light.

Hi, Marcia.
I use composted manure on all my beds; not the commercial type, but aged/composted horse manure from a friends' stable. Was an interesting discussion recently on the Soil Forum on just this topic.
Going to try and post the link - will see if that works!
Margaret

Here is a link that might be useful: Manure and Composted Manure

Thanks, Gil and Margaret. :) I know composted manure is better to work with immediately rather than uncomposted, but what about compost like the stuff we make? How would that compare to composted manure? Would it be better or no different?

Marcia, Compost and composted manure is interchangeable. They both are good. Peat is also good......but if you use to much, it will dry out quickly and crack....It needs to be mixed in well.

I use what ever is available for my gardens. I have used composted manure, mushroom manure, horse manure, compost from the city and lots of peat. With the clay soil that I started with here....everything is an improvement. And all seem to work well.

Sierra

Sorry Marcia, I think I misunderstood your question. I thought you were asking the difference between composted manure and uncomposted manure.

I agree that manure and compost are both good. You might have more variability in actual nutrient content in household compost. And I for one never have anywhere near enough!

Thanks - that's exactly what i wanted to know! I'll let my friend know tomorrow. :)

Hi there,

This topic has my interest as I've never paid quite enough attention to soil improvement.

So, even though composted manure is broken down, is there still a risk that it could 'burn' plants if over applied?

Regarding applying composted manure, is it sufficient just to add a couple of inches on top of the soil and dig it in just a bit?

Glen

Just a note...

We used to raise rabbits. Rabbit manure can go straight on the flowerbed. It does not have to sit for any period of time to compost.

Then again, chicken manure has to age in a compost pile just like cattle, sheep and horse manure.

Brenda

Glen, I use composted manure all the time. The manure that I use is about 10-15 years old. I have lots available at my sisters farm and I haul it away by the truck load. I use it as black soil and have dug out the clay and grass in my yard and just put the composted manure in as soil. I find that if the quack grass will grow in it so will everything else. It takes a year or two of dilligent weeding to clean out the beds but after that it goes great.
I also use it in pots to grow my cannas and tomatoes in, as they like a soil with lots of fibre. Hope this helps.

Cheers Al

I agree with Al that you can't overapply it. I have also used it as a topdressing Glen, like you said.

I also used to have rabbits and did add the manure directly to the garden, where it did not burn anything but I would never do it again because it was full of Timothy seeds. I guess it depends what's in their feed. But I had Timothy all through my vegetable and flower gardens I and I think the seeds are still germinating four years later.

When a friend told me that I could help myself to as much of the horse manure as I wanted from his stable, I felt like I had hit the jackpot!
Used a lot of it over the past few years; some as a topdressing - probably about 4 inches or so, some mixed into the soil, along with a bit of peat moss, and some in each of the composters.
Have not had a problem with weeds...at least no more than usual (LOL) or with plants being burned by it. As I understand it, the risk of plants being burned is typically associated by using fresh manure rather than composted manure.
Margaret

I use lots of composted manure from our farm. Ours has lots of straw in it when it is first piled up, since it is from the winter bedding in the corrals. Within a year, it is wonderful black crumbly soil, though I prefer to mix some garden soil in with it. A few years ago, we took down the old farm shop. The ground inside was about a foot lower than the surrounding soil. DH piled 2 feet of fairly fresh manure on it, and we left it to mellow. The next summer my "experimental" potatoes didn't do too well, since it was still too fluffy and possibly too rich. It's now my main vegetable garden and is wonderful. It has very nice texture and never gets hard. Like everybody else, the quantity of compost I could produce would hardly make a dent in what I need.
Connie

We did not use Timothy grass/hay for the rabbits and so I did not get seeds like those throughout my beds. We had the rabbits on metal bottomed cages that the droppings went through. We fed them alfalfa instead of hay for roughage. We did put down straw for bedding when a few of them were in a plywood bottomed cage.

I can imagine all the Timothy seeds would happily germinate in a flowerbed though. urrr!

Brenda

One of the best manures I have used is chicken manure. When we used to raise chickens on the farm I used to shovel it out of the chicken house straight on to the garden and worked it in. I did not put it on very thick as it was fresh but it contained no weeds and our veggies really grew.

cheers Al

I still need to ask my neighbours for some horse do-do. :D They've had the horses for a couple of years, so they must have some pretty much composted.

The compost comparison is interesting - looks like between the compost and the horse manure, it's 6 of one, half dozen of the other.

Asked person who is helping me with garden and lawn. Depended on for knowing details, not so sure now. I am pretty arthritic so not real mobile. Asked for organic compost and now lawn really smells, like cow pastures of my youth. is this a sign it is not composed enough, will this go away.

folks just a tip,i use for my tomatoes, i have all raised beds,i take a 5 lb,coffee can drill holes into bottom one qtr about 8 then put in rabbit manurecouple hands full,then some leaves cut over with lawn mower twice then wet it, then put some straw on top wet it, screw on lid, put into soil about 4 inches,leave for spring i usally check 2 or 3 times before if some room i add coffee grounds, under straw, now by spring lotsssssss of worm poop now i dig hole with post hole digger add about half can to each hole, put in 2 tea spoons of epsom salt wowwww the toms i get close to record here in ga on one plant had 81 lbs, oh when can empty redo this set can filled back in a new hole when worms u dumped ready they will come right back this way no getting worms out of poop,lol lol im a little lazy lol tu happy gardening