horse pooh or cow pooh

Hi can anyone help. What is the best pooh to use and how is the best way to use it. i.e. if it is fresh do i have to wait before applying it. Can i just put it straight on the newly dug soil
many thanks rachel

Well the best pooh is any that you can get for nothing!

I offer to clean a friend's paddock who has horses.  And a couple of times another friend has dropped off a trailer-load of horse or cow pooh.  I like the cow pooh because it has been broken down more in the multiple stomachs and the weed seeds seem less (or maybe have been completely digested??) compared to horse pooh.  I believe cow pooh has more available calcium, also from the digestion processes.  Cow pooh can be a pain though in that it can be harder to break up, either when you are putting it in the compost heap or directly on the garden.  Fresh horse muck is a bit the same.

I've been doing a bit of reading about Victorian gardens & gardeners ( in UK and NZ), and it seems that even that recently it was OK to use the "honey bucket" as part of the manure source for vegetable/flower gardens.  But some how my modern sensibilities draw the line at using my own pooh  even if it would be free.

= Pip

many thanks

WE are so new to this can i ask another question. Can i put the manure (fresh) on the beds i am wintering and not planting till next year. If i can wat to i do to help it break down.

many thanks

WE are so new to this can i ask another question. Can i put the manure (fresh) on the beds i am wintering and not planting till next year. If i can wat to i do to help it break down.

I recently picked up 6 bags of very fresh horse poo after an event involving horses in my local park. I used it by putting thin layers in my darlek composter with garden waste in between the layers. It really heats up well and in a couple of weeks I will doing a last cut of the grass and hedge in my garden. This will go into an empty darlek with layers of the horse poo/ compost mix. In this way I hope to dilute it down and also speed up the composting of the other stuff in my bins. I use the contents in spud sacks in the spring. Last year it worked well but I used bought horse muck.