That might be a good start toward making that soil into a good healthy soil, but animal manures that sit around for a long time can loose most of the nutrients it once contained if not mixed well with vegetative waste that will help stabilize them. Whether this might be ready for use next spring depends on where in the United States you are and what kind of winter you have.

True, the manure may have a lot of its soluble nutrients leached out, but it sounds like great organic matter to add to sandy soil. Sand doesn't have the ion exchange capacity for nutrient holding that silt and clay have, but the deficiency can be made up (at least partly) with compost, so go to it.

I've never dealt with old aged sawdust so I'm guessing a bit here: Sawdust is a strong brown and if fresh would deplete soil nitrogen. At 10 yrs. it may be pretty well broken down. If it's still N-hungry and your plants doo poorly in spring, you could add high N fertilizer to correct it. If you have time you could do a test now, mix up a small batch and plant some seeds (a pot would work) and see how they do. If they sprout and grow OK it's fine.

I live in northeast Washington state, zone 5. I forgot to mention that I'd like to use this soil mix in raised beds. Does the barley straw count as vegetable matter? The big pile of sandy topsoil (150 yds) that I had delivered has a little clay in it but it dries out fairly quickly and needs daily watering in the flower beds around the house where I've already used it, so it seems to need something added for it to be able to hold moisture better. By nutrients do you mean fertility? Can I add my own nutrients (fertilizers) to make it more nutritious? My thought was to add the manure and sawdust to help this sandy topsoil mix hold moisture better then fertilize regularly (weekly). Is there any chance this plan could work?

toxcrusadr - This aged cow manure has quite a bit of soil in it from the ground near the barn where the cows were wintered. The farmer kept piling it up over the years. When I took half his pile and we dug into it with the front loader I noticed some "steam" coming from inside the pile. I took several dump truck loads and dumped them in the area I plan on using for raised beds. Does the "steaming" that I saw inside the pile mean that it is still decomposing? Because it was "turned" do you think it will continue to decompose over the winter? Can I go 50/50 with the sandy topsoil mix and this mostly decomposed manure if it sits for another six months before I plant in it? What ballpark estimate would you suggest for mixing all three (manure, sandy topsoil and sawdust) based on the information I've provided? Your suggestion to mix a small batch then observe the results is a good one. Thanks for your help!

I had really sandy loam, very old decomposed horse manure, since my beds were 2ft deep I didn't mix in that much manure - though I can't tell you now how much I did use, just dug it into the top foot. Test the soil and the manure separately at first, then you can post here and someone can help figure out the mix.

I did have to lime, soil was about 4.2 and manure was 5.6. I did that well before mixing in the manure to have time for the soil pH to adjust.

FWIW, I've planted in really well decomposed "ground tree" (so included some leaves and composted by itself) from utility work, that was probably 10 yrs old. Don't know about the sawdust. Again, test samples from several places in the pile (mixed together) before using it as a soil amendment.

Sounds like the manure was still working - what did it smell like when you dug into it/dumped it?

Even if the manure is still cooking it should be fine by spring. Minimal composting time is 3 months to knock down pathogens in fresh manure.

I hope that 150 yard figure was a typo, if not that's 15 dump truck loads of soil to work with. Yikes.

You want in the end a soil with 5-10% organic matter, but when adding compost initially you can put in a lot more than that, for two reasons: A significant fraction of compost is minerals and water; and, as the compost continues to decompose it gives off some of its organic matter as water and CO2. So you could add compost up to as high as 1/2 the volume of soil. Just remember it's going to shrink down, so pile it high in your beds.

I ended up with 150 yds of manure by paying $100 per hour for five truck and trailer loads (30 yds per double load). The manure was free. Then I had six truck and trailer loads of sandy topsoil (25 yds per double load) delivered the next day at the same $100 per hr trucking rate plus $12 per yd for the sandy topsoil. My intention is to get enough soil mixed for 25 raised beds that will measure 10' x 32' x 12" deep. I know this is an ambitious project but I have the time and energy for it. My goal is to grow perennial plants for profit and give some away as well. I'm 64 yrs old, recently retired and like most of you, I love dirt and working in it. For the last couple of years I've experimented with growing different perennials and have found some to be extremely easy to grow as well as very attractive (shasta daisy, coneflowers, black eyed susans, day lilies, russian sage and yarrow. I'm still deciding what to grow and I've heard that garlic is a good seller. I'm not trying to get rich, just want to earn enough to justify all the expenditures my favorite hobby requires. By using this forum and the knowledge of many very experienced people I hope to limit the trial and error process of getting a soil mix that works.

I ended up with 150 yds of manure by paying $100 per hour for five truck and trailer loads (30 yds per double load). The manure was free. Then I had six truck and trailer loads of sandy topsoil (25 yds per double load) delivered the next day at the same $100 per hr trucking rate plus $12 per yd for the sandy topsoil. My intention is to get enough soil mixed for 25 raised beds that will measure 10' x 32' x 12" deep. I know this is an ambitious project but I have the time and energy for it. My goal is to grow perennial plants for profit and give some away as well. I'm 64 yrs old, recently retired and like most of you, I love dirt and working in it. For the last couple of years I've experimented with growing different perennials and have found some to be extremely easy to grow as well as very attractive (shasta daisy, coneflowers, black eyed susans, day lilies, russian sage and yarrow. I'm still deciding what to grow and I've heard that garlic is a good seller. I'm not trying to get rich, just want to earn enough to justify all the expenditures my favorite hobby requires. By using this forum and the knowledge of many very experienced people I hope to limit the trial and error process of getting a soil mix that works.

Manure, while it is prganic matter, has pretty soluble nutrients, easily washed out which is one reason large dumps of animal manures cause such major pollution problems. You will need, in your sandy soil, something to aid in keeping any nutrients that might still be there in your soil and thaat material is vegetative waste. The straw can be part of that, but you will need about 3 parts vegetative waste to every part of manure to not loose nutrients to leaching.

Wow, that's an impressive project. Sounds like you're off to a great start. Hope you'll keep us posted and also post some pictures.

Would it be wise to throw some rotted barley straw and very aged sawdust into the mix to provide for more vegetative waste and use less manure for now? Will adding fertilizer regularly provide the nutrition the plants might need? I was under the impression that plants will grow in any type of soil if they are fed regularly with fertilizer (as the Mittleider method teaches). Thank you for sharing your expertise!

150 yards of manure and 150 of sandy loam? Wow, you've got more to work with there than I do and I'm farming for profit!

I'd still get the manure tested (if you think it's done composting - sounds like it might not be), then you'll know how much N is still in it, you don't really want to mix it 50/50 with the sand, but you need to know what the composition of that "topsoil" (which probably is mostly/all subsoil) is before you start amending. Mixing straw in sounds good, esp. if it's not quite "done" yet, that should help keep the process going.

You probably won't need to add any "fertilizer" at all, just dig more manure in each year (planting legumes in rotation will help too), with as much as you've got available. But you really need to know what you're starting with for soil.

GKB48:
For your gardens, you could use, as another poster on another site does, railroad ties for container walls.

If you could get someone with a skid-steer to dig out the rough bed down two feet. It would then be easy, easier for two people, to set the ties till they are the right height for you.
You could use screw or spike to hold them together if desired, then leaving one end open, fill by driving the skid-steer in and tamping as it fill, so your soil is not so loose and will not settle. Then close the open end and use the skid-steer to fill remian gap and the gap outside the box.

This way you would not have nutrient bleeding off to the sides but would be contained in the box going straight down if they do move.
At the same time your base would not be rocky sand but the same soil you grow in.

Just an idea.

ajsmama- the manure has very little odor to it, much to the delight of the wife. She left the farm long ago and doesn't want to return. We live in a small town of 5,000 folks in northeast Washington (Colville) and have a very large lot (three acres) which provides enough space for me to "farm" as a hobby. We have a tractor which helps immensely with a project of this magnitude. My plan is to construct 12 grow boxes this year and another 12 or so next year if possible and practical. Because we live in a farming/logging community, manure and sawdust are plentiful. The natural soil is sandy so it needs to be amended. I love to garden and grow things so I'm excited about this project. I hope I can get the soil amended properly...I have a lot to learn. I appreciate the advice that I've been getting from everyone. Thank you!

300 yds of manure and topsoil - plus the sawdust- must take up half an acre LOL! Good luck - hope you have room to maneuver (and a bucket on that tractor).

Check with your county extension office about soil testing - ours does it for free.

I'd put this garden together and grow something in it and see how things go, before investing a lot in fertilizer. I think you have the makings of a good garden already.

RpR- Thanks for the tip about the railroad ties. I have been planning on using untreated doug fir 2x12's or cedar2x6's. I can get them both for a very decent price. I'd like to start building the boxes this fall but we spend our winters in Arizona so it'll have to wait until April. In the meantime I'll be planning what to grow.

I'm not real fond of the creosote that RR ties are soaked with. I've used them for retaining walls for non-edible beds though.