I spent most of my morning today wearing my overalls and Wellington boots, wading knee-high in what we ‘GYO’ers call Black Gold – horse manure. An old friend of mine, mentioned that there was a pile of free manure going to anyone who had the ways and means of collecting it. He also mentioned to me how high the pile was and how much muck was there to collect for free. I certainly didn’t need telling twice! I booked the van off my husband for the morning, made sure that I had plenty of empty compost bags and headed out to pick up my friend. Luckily for us the weather was being considerably kind to us. No matter how many times my friend tried to tell me how big the pile actually was, I still didn’t quite grasp the enormity of the bank of manure until I drove around the bend at the stables.
The look on my face as we neared the bank of horse manure said it all. It was the complete look of astonishment and amazement as I had never seen so much horse manure piled so high in my life!!!
It’s so big, I looked it up on Google Earth and it’s visible from there!
After speaking to one of the stable hands, he went on to tell us that some of the manure that we were actually taking away could be as old as 10 to 15 years old. There were just banks and banks of well rotted manure as high as you could see. There were also piles of the fresh stuff as the stable hands were merrily wheeling the fresh produce out with their wheelbarrows and dumping in a new area.
A new path had to be constructed using the fresh stuff as most of the well rotted stuff had been dug out lower down and the stable owners were in fear of the tunnelling causing the pile to collapse. It was clearly evident which was the well rotted stuff and which was the freshly piled stuff.
Roy, the stable hand assured us that all of the fresh manure would have rotted down nicely and be ready and waiting for us again during the autumn months and there was no fear of the pile disappearing for many years yet.
So thanks to Derek for mentioning it to me and for also taking the time to come with me and help me to fill the 20 or so bags. I promise not to tell anyone about you falling over in the ‘quicksand’ otherwise known as sodden manure!!
Whoops!! 🙂
Happy digging’
Debb
digginwivdebb 
lol bet you and the van smelt lovely xxxx
It actually didn’t smell as you would expect. Only the fresh stuff has a bad odour and that’s no good to us gardeners. 🙂
What a fabulous gift for the garden. It really is gold.
It is truly one of the best things that we can grace our soils with.
Looks very familiar that! Pops and I played with something similar before Christmas.
Can’t beat a bit of free manure. The plants will thank us with their produce 🙂
I’ve never used horse manure, but we still have a healthy pile from the cattle. Makes for some good gardening!
Isn’t it great! The plants love it. I don’t have access to cattle waste but I agree they are both great for the garden.
So healthy for the garden, but sure wouldn’t want to fall into it.
Most definitely not something you would like to fall in. Although I’m surprised that there really wasn’t as much of a smell as you would expect.
Your post encouraged me to look around the local area…..I may be in luck, I have three “free” resources for aged horse manure. The only cost is the effort ….. Thanks for the kick in the butt to get moving!
Thanks for your comment. Glad I inspired you to get going. Debb