Aged horse manure does not look like horse manure fresh from the horse. I board my horse at a 40 horse barn. The owner dumps his manure all year (about 250 yards from the barn.) Since the average horse produces about 40lbs/day, this is a LOT of manure. It composts itself beautifully-literally steams in hot weather, never has snow on it in winter. And we are in the Hudson Valley, NY! Owner keeps two distinct piles-this year's and last year's. Last year's stuff looks like fluffy black dirt-no distinct "horse apples" in it. Every year, in the fall, he spreads last year's on his fields-he grows hay. I take several hundred pounds and work it into my garden, in northern New Jersey, with wonderful results. Yeah, you do get some "weeds" (one year I got corn, horse digestion is not that efficient) but it is worth it.

70% off culled wood to make garden beds. Good stuff from what I have seen at our HD. It just won't last nearly as long as cedar beds wood but at that price (compared to the price of cedar) it can't be beat. Bottom line - it doesn't matter to the garden, just to the gardener's eye for appearance. selling alpaca poop compost, in another post he mentioned it to be organic. Since the rest of the post was same just the title different I would say it's not organic particularly. Alpaca poop compost, is it good bad or doesn't matter? Wish I could get some. Kess weed seeds than horse. So it depends on how much he is charging for it and is it really compost as kimmsr defined, or just aged alpaca poop? But yeah they are all organic UNLESS it contains grasses that have been treated with weed killers or other chemicals. Go see it first, grab a handful, squeeze it, see how fine it is, smell it. It should smell like good earth. If it smells like ammonia or has any chemical odor, pass on it. other people on craigslist are giving away horse poop, and say you should put this under the raised bed when you dig the first layer on ground, so when the plant roots reach there it's most likely "composted" and they get nutrition boost. Has anyone one practiced this? Not recommended for 2 reasons: 1) if it isn't well composted, well aged already it has no business being used in a food garden - no fresh manures go in vegetable gardens, and 2) layering like that often only creates drainage problems and water pooling. All ingredients used need to be well mixed together. Dave

A good rule of thumb to follow when using animal manure to make compost is to mix 3 parts vegetative waste to 1 part animal manure. That gets very close to the optimal 30:1 C:N ratio.

Actually, Skybird, the link is to Whatcom County. The WSU is Washington State University. Whatcom County doesn't ring a bell . . . think, Bellingham. Yep, just south of Vancouver, BC. Wet, cool or wet and cold, so your shoes and all your clothing will grow mildew if you leave them too long in the closet. Whatcom County, home of Holland Days!! (Lynden Washington elevation 58 feet.) The idea of not putting your compost where it will sit in a pool of water makes some sense. High tide may carry it away. Here, I like to dig down about 8 inches in our rapidly draining glacial till and start the pile, below grade. I bet a hose could be run full-on for 24 hours without filling a 7'x7'x8" "pool." One result of digging down is to provide me with SOIL Â a component I think of as essential for building a compost pile. Most of it will go on top after I've finished my layering. And, layering is important, too. This "recipe" doesn't say much about other ingredients. Horse manure and bedding won't decompose as well if used alone. The bedding is an important issue which the writer considers. I'm afraid that lots of folks who keep horses are too sanitary. I used to go to this conscientious horse trainer who brought in wood shavings by the dumptruck load and kept his stables spanking clean. Unfortunately, wood doesn't decompose very well and I finally gave up on him and begin getting manure elsewhere. If youÂre lucky (or not) Charlene, your neighbor wonÂt be so tidy. You can overcome the wood by adding a good deal of weeds, grass clippings, and/or chicken manure. If anything can work its way thru wood itÂs chicken manure. Don't be afraid to add fertilizer. A good balanced fertilizer can't hurt a thing and certainly isn't wasted since you are applying it all to the soil anyway. Some folks think that you should have at least 5 different components for your pile but I think we do a little better than that. We enjoy a good deal of fruit and vegetables, year-around and that means lots of peelings and such from the kitchen. All of it goes in the compost. Turning compost? I'm not really up to that anymore. I just keep it moist, pull the weeds off it (to compost in pile #B), and allow it to decompose at least 18 months. And, Cnetter is right, "(Horse poop) does absolute wonders for the texture of the soil." Steve