Sorie6, I have never knowingly used composted horse manure, but if I had access to it I would. I get mushroom compost from Mulch & More in Ft. Smith and composted manure from Ace hardware, both come from Miami, OK. Often they smell like sulfur when very wet, but lose that smell when tilled in. My guess is that the smell comes from the lack of oxygen.

I have to pay a lot more for compost here south of Ft. Smith, and I had rather have composted leaves, grass, or hay because it does not have sand in it like the that I get from Miami.

Larry

Sorie, The mushroom compost has a lot of horse manure in it. Some years it smells strong and others not so much. One year mine was very wet and it had a strong smell, but not nearly as strong as some stuff I bought in a bag one year. The neighbors were asking me what I was putting on the flower bed. I almost gagged when I dumped the bags.

I walked across my garden today and it was like walking on tundra. We had a good size snowfall that had to melt and then a half inch of rain, but our rainfall has been much less than normal for this time of year.

Sorie, If it doesn't smell too bad and seems fully composted, you probably can use as much of both kinds of manure as you wish. It is possible to grow plants in nothing but composted manure, but it need to be fully composted before you plant into it.

Carol, Because so much of our 2013 rainfall fell from September through December, we actually are wetter than usual for this time of the year, especially considering that January and February were so dry, but the moisture is down deep enough that it doesn't interfere with planting. That moisture should be great for the trees at least, but the upper few inches of soil are pretty dry. I don't know if I even could dig deeply enough here to ever, ever, ever hit water, except in the rainiest part of the rainiest years. Our rainy years probably are your dry years. : )

We had a really rainy year in 2004, 2007 and 2010, and I sure would like to have one of those again. While rainfall in fall is nice, it helps the garden more if it falls during the active spring and summer gardening season.

Dawn