pnbrown's advice is right on - nothing fresh belongs in the garden. While some root crops will tolerate fresh, it isn't recommended because of the associated health and food safety aspects. Using only well-aged or composted manure is the safest and easiest way to go. Here are links to several informative articles on the safe use of manure in the vegetable garden. They should answer all your question. Fresh Manure and Food Gardens Don't Mix Reduce Risks of Using Manure as a Garden Fertilizer Manure for Your Garden Tips Guidelines for Using Manure on Vegetable Gardens Dave

pt03, what you have there is from the USDA, a group of people known to be not very serious about organic gardening/farming. Most of the organic farmers on the policy making board are really upset because the recommendations given to the USDA are very often changed bu those people to make them more friendly to people that are only interested in marketing to the growing number of us looking for organically grown foods. So while those that are serious about organic certification strongly recommend not applying animal manures to your soil until it has aged 12 months, the USDA people, that published the "standards" you posted, changed that to meet the needs of agribusiness, the CAFO's. Those "standards" also talk about "raw manure" which is different from "fresh" manure.

The USDA says you should not apply manures to soil that will be growing food crops for a minimum of 90 days before harvesting those crops, 3 months. Manures applied to soils, even if tilled in, produce that distictive animal manure odor which is nutrients escaping to the atmosphere. Properly composting manures helps capture, and stabilize, the nutrients in manures so more are available to the plants. If the soil does not have adequate levels of organic matter many of the nutrients in manures can flow out of the soil and into the ground water after rains or irrigation. All animal manures should be properly composted before going into the garden.

Sara, I'm not far from Philly (in DELCO). If you don't mind, would you mind sending along the information regarding where you found that lovely stuff?! I'd love to get my hands on some Horse (or any other herbivore) manure, but the wife doesn't think that livestock would go over well here in suburbia! Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Sara. BTW, thanks to all who posted above. It would seem that some on here still don't understand the basics of how the decomposition and compost process actually works. While FRESH manure can be a problem in the garden, aged manure is a great BENEFIT! That manure is aged and now is the perfect time to add that (incorporated - tilled) into the top layer of the soil (especially before the ground has a chance to freeze - there was a hard frost in my area this morning). Manure is an excellent addition to any soil, because not only does it act as OM to help with water retention and drainage, it also acts as a slow release BALANCED fertilizer. Aged manure and composted manure from herbivores are some of the best amendments available to put into the garden. The only all-purpose material that I think would be better is vermicompost (worm poo). But don't worry, adding OM to your garden will attract more worms. ;^) Lloyd, you nailed the proper way to incorporate that material into the soil. (Stick around long enough, and you will end up a gardener!) Nice touch on the layer of leaves over the top of the tilled soil! (Note to Sara, be sure to moisten the leaves as you lay them on top - about 2 inches deep should be sufficient otherwise they will just blow away.)