Shit on my hugels?

So, I just shoveled up a bunch of horse shit from the neighbors and am wondering how best to use it with our hugels. They vary from 3 years old to brand new and all have had different ingredients when I made them. Usually I start with rotting logs and then add leaves or woodchips, unfinished compost, manure, finished compost, soil and top with straw. But woods in them are all different and some had some chicken manure mixed in. Some of the older beds are losing soil on top, I assume from it falling between spaces in the lower layers.

My thoughts were to strip off the straw, add some manure to the top and then either add soil on top of that. But I dont have soil, just a bunch of pretty fresh (from at least a couple months old to today fresh) horse manure.

If I add a thin layer of manure and try to mix it in a bit, will it decompose enough between now and spring for me to plant in or will I need to add soil to cover it either way?

Or I should I go back and get aged manure instead and save this fresh stuff for mixing with sawdust to make new beds? Ive got a pile of red pine sawdust and want to make a few beds for raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries and thimbleberries.

Any advice or opinions are appreciated!

If you get a 3ft by 3ft by 3ft pile of sawdust and horse manure going right now it will get super hot and compost, ready to be used in a month or so.

I also think that the 1month to 36month mix horse manure/compost, will no longer be nitrogen rich and too hot like say fresh chicken manure and you will be able to plant right into it come spring. The winter rain and snow will mellow out all the nitrogen in the horse manure.

I've done spring planting in horse manure from the prior year with no problem, but I don't remember details about its age or anything.

Is it straight manure, or is there hay or some kind of bedding mixed in? If there's anything mixed in I wouldn't think twice about planting in it next spring. If you put your straw mulch overtop like you're thinking  and don't have a super thick layer of manure underneath, that would mellow things out too.

S Bengi wrote:If you get a 3ft by 3ft by 3ft pile of sawdust and horse manure going right now it will get super hot and compost, ready to be used in a month or so.

I also think that the 1month to 36month mix horse manure/compost, will no longer be nitrogen rich and too hot like say fresh chicken manure and you will be able to plant right into it come spring. The winter rain and snow will mellow out all the nitrogen in the horse manure.

I didnt consider composting it all, but maybe I will now. Just to be clear though, the hugels range in age from brand new to 3 years old. The horse manure is all fresh. Like a couple months old at the very most. The sawdust is also a couple months old.

Jan White wrote:I've done spring planting in horse manure from the prior year with no problem, but I don't remember details about its age or anything.

Is it straight manure, or is there hay or some kind of bedding mixed in? If there's anything mixed in I wouldn't think twice about planting in it next spring. If you put your straw mulch overtop like you're thinking  and don't have a super thick layer of manure underneath, that would mellow things out too.

It’s almost straight manure. Theres a little dirt, grass and leaves mixed in from my shoveling but I didn’t see any bedding material in it. And I would only use a thin layer of manure in the beds. We freeze up here around November so im not sure how much the manure would break down over winter. I guess whether or not that matters probably depends on what I’d like to plant there next year.