If manure contains too much nitrogen it will "burn" the plants. Raw manure is called "hot" if it has higher levels of nitrogen in it. Letting it compost "cools" it and you can apply it directly to your garden with no worries.

Cow manure is "warm" and doesn't take as long to age to be safe. Which is why it's fine used the way Jennye describes.

Horse, chicken, sheep, goat, and rabbit manure are "hot" and pretty much have to be composted to be free of weeds and lower in nitrogen (safer levels anyway). Here's a really great page about compost, manure, and fertilizer.

I've read articles about raising rabbits--their manure is excellent, but if you feed them anything but bunny food from the feed store you have to compost their litter or you get wild weeds, just like from horse manure.

If the manure you used has been sitting for years in a pile, you're probably fine. Those folks are sitting on a gold mine, though. I wish I had a truck or trailer to haul off manure for our yarden. It's free around here, too, if you haul it away yourself. Our next car WILL be a truck. They're just too useful not to have. We've needed one forever.

Anhata
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