Natural Green Lawn

Only people who are far removed from the production site (so to speak) of horse manure sing its praises as “Black Gold,” or the best lawn fertilizer in the world. You can pick them out in a gardening crowd. They have faint memories of a horse on grandmother’s farm and the beautiful roses she used to grow by feeding her bushes plenty of horse manure. Or they may be serious composters and put every shred of organic material they can find in their homes in their bin, turning it with religious fervor on schedule. This type always moans, “Oh, if only I could get my hands on some real good horse manure! That’d be the ticket! The tomatoes I’d have by June!” Then there is the bookish kind of horse manure enthusiast who is fond of speaking of “texture,” “aged horse manure,” and what should or should not be in evidence in the horse manure, such as straw or green beetles, or mouse tails or lizard spleens.

Is Horse Manure A Good Lawn Fertilizer?

Take it from me, I come from a line of big time farmers who’d have thousands of acres under cultivation at a time. I also have some major horse manure producers on my own property. Not one of my ancestors or relatives sang the praises of horse manure as a fertilizer. I’ve personally tried it on several different kinds of plants and gardens, and not once was it superior to commercial fertilizers and it was a huge inconvenience to apply.

There are several good reasons for this, the chief of which is that, given the “Production Process” involved with horse manure, you simply cannot calibrate the minerals, nutrients, acid and organic material in it with any exactitude. The feed and the fodder a horse eats, plus the inner chemical self of the horse, the weather of a particular year, how much water was available and the quality of the water, etc. determine what comes out the back end. As for ageing manure, if you don’t know what you have in the first place, what difference does it make if it’s “aged?” This isn’t wine we’re talking about here.

For my money, worm castings and commercially available compost are infinitely easier to handle ,and they deliver superior results in a garden or lawn. Beyond that, sorry to say, but the chemical fertilizer companies know what will produce dynamite plants and lawns. They have spent billions in researching this. I can say with confidence my horses have not spent the first dollar on improving the consistency or potency of their manure and could care less. So if you want to get up to your elbows in horse manure, be my guest. Better yet, c’mon over, and I’ll give you a pitchfork. I’ve got plenty of it that needs to be mucked out.

Long story short, horse manure is NOT a viable natural lawn fertilizer. If you want something natural that works well on lawns, try corn gluten meal instead.. it smells better too!