3-Year old horse manure will provide a lot of organic matter and some trace nutirents, but very little nitrogen. I would put it down now, disc it in and you should have good friable soil in the spring. As far as amounts . . . all you can get. By Spring it will all have turned int ogood humus. Ron The Garden Guy! http://www.TheGardenGuy.net Soil Tests Available Through My Blog

Actually, you can use less than aged with no harm to your roses. When spread, don't let it touch the bush. Spread it at the drip line and scratch it in. This promotes feeder root growth as they grow to reach the nutrients. The only advantage I see with aged manure is you don't have to be as careful when applying it to your rose beds. Either way, horse manure has low NPK so burning your bushes is difficult. Horse Manure (fresh) is 0.7: 0.3: 0.6: Look closely at these numbers as they are all less than 1 percent. Urea, a main ingredient in many chemical fertilizers, is 46.0 percent nitrogen compared to 00.7 in fresh horse manure.While it may be recommended to let it age a few weeks, scratching it into the soil lets it age in place, releasing valuable nutrients slowly as water runs through it. Here is a link that might be useful: Organic fertilizer NPK

Karen, they may have some that is aged from being piled up for awhile. Ask about it. I know that there is a difference in horse and cow manure, but this is prime, aged, composted about 18 months old. is a close up view. Cow manure should look quite similar when aged and composted (which it does on it's own when piled up.) Also, it should NOT have a strong, offensive or unpleasant odor. Bill P.

bcomplex - Thanks for the advice. There is a box store shouting distance from my house, maybe I will check out the make-up of black kow. I don't have a truck just a big SUV. I've hauled stuff before by laying a big tarp in the back. I was trying not to buy stuff if I could find it elsewhere and knew exactly what I was getting (from the farmer). Wish I had started this in the fall. Oh well, next year. Kimmsr - You said "What do you expect adding this manure would do for your soil that what you already have done has not? " That is my exact question. I don't know. That is why I listed what I had already put in the beds, so that some of the wise folks here could say "go or no go". If you don't think aged horse manure will add to what I already have, let me know. (I'm sure if you had spoken that question to me rather than writing it, it wouldn't have sounded so harsh.)