Is aged horse manure a soil substitute?

I just spread 4 inches of aged horse manure (it doesn't have an odor) on my garden. Will I be able to plant seeds and transplants into the horse manure or do I need to work the manure into the soil? Thanks!

You can wait for several months for the worms to do it or you can till it in by hand or tiller. Just don't chop up the soil too much. Possibly you might want to add compost or sawdust to assist in soil building.

Manure by itself, or compost even, is not a substitute for soil.

If you plan to start seeds this spring, I would probably turn the manure into the soil and mix it slightly before I planted seeds.

If you are going to let it set for several months, I might not bother turning it in.

If it hasn't been hot-composted, don't be surprised if you get a lot of weeds sprouting...

I'll start planting in early to mid April. It's light and fluffy now. The birds are crazy about it, so I suppose this means they are finding seeds. So, if there are worms in the manure, it means it is ready for planting?

I have enough horse manure to build a garden to feed a nation...but how do you overcome all the grass seed? My neighbor put some in his garden last year (I just moved here and took over temporary care of the former owner's horses and bought some of our own) and he said it grew the prettiest grass he's ever seen.
I have tons and tons of manure mixed with pine shavings that's been sitting and breaking down for months now that I would love to have a use for, especially since the area I'm going to put my garden in hasn't been used as a garden in over 6 or 7 years and is hard as a rock.

DevilDogs, I would put the manure on the soil, turn it in and wait for the grass seeds to sprout, when you have a nice green crop, turn it in again, and by doing that you should have eliminated most of your grass, plus you will have added some fresh green organic matter to your soil.
After that, you can plant and mulch and i think you will have it made.
Josephine.

Thanks Frost! I have some mulched up leaves that have been sitting since fall that are nice and black too that I plan on mixing in also. Maybe I'll get lucky and the combo of the manure and the leaves will hot compost and kill most of the seed. I have tons of brush sitting on top of the area right now that we are going to burn maybe next weekend. Was planning on mixing the ash and whats left after it burns in too. I probably have an old kitchen sink I can throw in too LOL.

The ashes will be good, but be careful with those fires.
I think you have a good plan, good luck with it.
Josephine.

Coming from Cali just 4 months ago, the fires terrify me! Everyone here burns everything it seems like. My neighbor has been clearing his land for the past several years and has 3 areas he pulls stuff too and burns. Says the secret is disel fuel as it has a lower spark point or something to that effect. Anyway, he has become the expert and he is going to do it for us. Ours is just a small brush pile compared to his but we will have a much larger one that we will probably do next year. And I'll be standing by with my hose for both :-)