Hi I'm new here with ANOTHER manure question!

Hello everyone,

I started growing vegetables last year in a large raised bed in the garden and loved it so much we've just dug up half the grass! (And have a greenhouse coming on Friday!)

My sister in law has 3 horses and has said we can have as much manure as we like. 2 choices though, the stuff that is lifted out of the bedding (so has a few woodshavings stuck to it) or clean stuff that is lifted from the field.

Last year when we made our raised beds we took stuff from the field and just used it as the bottom layer before replacing the top soil and put the plants in about 2 weeks later! Didn't seem to do anything any harm but Dad advised us that it was crazy!

So.... my questions are....
 - which kind of manure is better?
 - should we do the same thing as last year with the manure under the topsoil? (I think not as we'd like to grow carrots etc in this part of the garden)
 - can I put it in the compost bin to rot down? I am not a very good compost maker, it seems awfully slimy!

Thanks in advance to anyone who has made it this far through the post and still has the will to live and answer any of my questions!!

If you stuck it in under a foot of topsoil, it had probably rotted down before your plants had got their roots that deep.  Also, it'll have generated heat as it was rotting, so things will have got a head-start.  You can mix it in the compost, or keep a separate muck-heap, or dig it in raw in the autumn if you're leaving ground fallow over winter.  Just don't put fresh muck on the plants themselves, or, as someone said, it'll damage the roots.  Personally, I'd take the field-picked stuff - shavings take a while to rot down.