I have gotten "garden soil" before from a trucking company and I can tell you it isn't worth hauling home muchless paying someone to do it for you.

Karen

Thanks for the head's up on that Karen. It just kills me to have dirt hauled but when it isn't that good I'm sure I wouldn't have been a happy camper. I went ahead and got the pickup load of manure. It looks really good. I got it tilled in and will get stuff planted this week.

If anyone else is interested in a pickup load let me know and I'll be happy to put you in touch with them.

I'd be interested in hearing how the horse manure works out for you. Please let us know in a few months. I have an unlimited supply of manure from my horses, but I've rarely used it as I've always heard horse manure usually contains a lot of undigested weed seeds. I know my pastures contain a lot of weeds, and the horses graze them. So I generally only use their manure in my aquatic pots or in compost piles so the weeds won't sprout. I'd love to hear how your gardens do this summer and if using the manure causes you to have more weeds than normal.

Horse manure is excellent fertilizer especially if you use it fresh because it won't "burn" the plants. Other manure like pig or cow or chicken is too "hot" in that it has so much nitrogen that it actually burns your plants. If you have the time etc make a compost pile with the manure. When it composts it heats up and the weed seeds are killed by the heat.
Sometimes there are compromises to be made though. The weed seeds in horse manure is a fact but if you put it on in the fall and till it in and can till it a couple times more before your plants are put into the garden you will stand a good chance of having the seeds sprout and tilling will get rid of them. Also if you use a good mulch to smother out the weeds, that will work well too. Best case senario would be to spread your manure heavy on a portion of the garden and keep it black by tilling all summer and planting in the spring. This allows the weeds to sprout and contribute to the organic matter when you till and allows the manure a chance to start breaking down and releasing some of it's nutrients into the soil.
No matter what though where there is a will there is a way and horse manure is excellent.

The place where I picked up the manure only feeds their horses on grain and a very small amount of hay. They don't have pastures to turn them out into to eat, just riding arenas. So hopefully I won't have as much of the weed seed problem.

That is good to know about the manure. I didn't know there was such a difference between pigs, cows, horses, etc. I've used sheep manure in the past because my inlaws raised them. Wowsers! was it ever good. But they got rid of the sheep and got cows. I know what you mean about it being hot. Last year I burned a couple of tomatoes putting in on a bit too thick.

I'm going back to get another load for my son's pumpkin patch. He is trying to grow a giant pumpkin. I've heard that they are heavy feeders and love the manure. I guess we will find out.

Near Fort Worth, TX last fall, we got two full pick-up loads of horse manure which had been piled up at a stable.

The owner only charged $10.00 for his service to operate the tractor and scoop it into the truck bed.

We piled that stuff right on top of the nutirent leached out clay soil on my daughter's lot. Than planted a Black Tupelo, two Loblolly trees two Thuja 'Green Giants, one three trunked 6 paperbark maple, three Sky Pencil Holly, one Muskogee Crape Myrtle, one Jane Magnolia, and nine Dwarf Palmetto Palms. the remainder, we spread in a thin layer as mulch for the front foundation bed with would be landscaped later.

Nothing burned, but I did cover all except the front foundation bed with a four inch layer of shredded Cedar mulch. The stuff we put down did not produce a weeds, not even the landscape bed which was not covered with the cedar mulch.

The only problem we did encounter was the fact that with the extra watering needed to establish the sod, two of the beds in a lower part of the yard one of the beds retained too much water. The dwarf palms in that area did not like that and died along with a Loblolly and a Thuja 'Green Giant.' All the other beds though were fine and everything planted in them simply is still thriving nicely.

It is too bad we did not get more horse manure compost to spread on the yard and help the Palmetto Saint Augustine grass establish. In the yard winter kill was extensive this Spring. When plugs were purchased and planted to fill in the dead areas, some of them were planted in the part of the bed where the Palms had died. We had chosen to simply convert that area of the beds into yard. Well the grass plugs that were planted in the horse manure rooted wonderfully and flourished, while the other plugs planted in soil, with no horse manure, struggled with transplant shock and took a long time to establish.

So we simply love the horse manure compost. Even when we used so much it also did not create any offensive odor.

Katrina,
I am so glad you posted. I really need a way to dispose of all my excess horse manure and what better way than on my gardens. I have always been too afraid to use it because of what I've heard about the weed seeds. I have a large composter full of manure that I filled up during the winter, so it's probably ready to apply to my garden today. I think I will try it out on my banana plants. I will let y'all know how they like it.
Dawna

wolflover, do not forget the point about it retaining moisture so well, if it is used on top of clay soil and if the area is low or collects lots of rain and watering runoff. That moisture retention factor also makes it good as a mixing in addition for correcting the excessive drainage in sandy soils.

Also, the stuff we got did not have an odor. If yours does, pile it up in the open air and stir it enough for the odor causing elements to escape or go through a chem. change before applying it to your landscaping beds.