Help, need the brain bank

Hello again,

I have bought cow manure, but I'm not sure about how to use it. Do I put it in my compost pile now and let it sit with it, or do I wait until spring and dig it into my flower beds then.
My instint was to put it in the compost piles.
I have a couple beds that I'm not going to plant until next year, so I'm just making a compost pile in the bed and then will spread it out when it's time to plant. Should I dump the manure in now?
You've all been really helpful. I'm out in the woods everytime I get a chance and raking and digging into all the leaves that have been there forever, so they are pretty composted already.
I'll have compost for several yards. ha ha

If you bought it bagged it has already been composted.

If it's fresh, you need to add it to the compost pile.

Paul

Evenif it is composted you might want to mix it with leaf compost, because it has a tendency to clump up (much like peat).

You will be surprised how it shrinks down once composted - you put bushels of leaves in and get a pail of compost out.

I know about the leaves. I think I've raked the whole 5 acres and now it probably will compost one largge flower bed.

Oh, it's all of it, not just the leaves. It is hard to look at something and figure out how much of it is actually made up of water and air that is released in the process, mushing it all down (that's the technical term) to a little bit of good earth...