which would you choose?? pic added!

[boggybranch]

Always been a might partial to poo and straw, myself. Never been a fan of sawdust, except for the paths. Course, I reckon which is best depends on what your soil's like to begin with. Can't, REALLY, see making the wrong choice, here, either way you go.

 

[thistlebloom]

I agree with Boggy, either way your soil is bound to benefit.

 

[journey11]

Sand is a good amendment for clay soil but only if it's coarse sand. Fine sand may actually make the problem worse.
The straw would break down faster than the sawdust .

I second that (clay+sand without large amounts of organic material may just = brick! ). The sand used in horse stables is probably the fine grained kind (and may even be the cheaper, easy to obtain construction grade sand that could have other things in it that you don't want in your garden.) The poo/straw mixture will break down faster. And it takes a lot of nitrogen to get wood chips to break down thoroughly.

 

[thistlebloom]

here are a couple pics of the 3-way mix


http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/uploads/7254_dirt.jpg


http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/uploads/7254_photo.jpg


The first pic is of a handful of the compost.
It is really wet now because of melting snow and the snowing and raining it has been doing daily.
The second pic is just a close up of the pile after I unloaded it in the garden.
The sand is from the pit that the stuff is in, It is sand we screen and sell to local paving companies.
So far I have hauled 2 pickup loads home, it equels about 2.5 yards. I am hoping to haul about 6 yards of each compost.
I hope these pics are OK I took them with a I-phone.

Let's see if I have this pictured right: The manure was stored in a sand pit? So the sand that's mixed in was just picked up along with the manure mix? And that sand sounds like it's probably coarse, like a masonry sand, so... I think you should take it all! If the sawdust (or shavings?... they wouldn't be as fine ) mix is not as decomposed as you think it needs to be , you could always cover it and spread it in the fall.

 

[Collector]

Well I have hauled in another load today, so I have around 4yards of the manure sawdust mix. My boss told me today that there is only a trace amount of granular sand in it, just what he picked up while mixing it with a front end loader.It seems to be really good stuff, it holds alot of water but doesnt clump to bad when you squeze it in your fist. I think I will start hauling home the manure straw for a change. The manure is some really good looking stuff also. I figure with the compost and manure combination it is really going to prime my garden soil up.
Thank all of you for your thoughts and advice, there is always so much I forget to think about, it helps alot to get others input.
Who woulda thunk there was so much to know about poop.

 

[thistlebloom]

Yeah, what you got here is a bunch of poopologists!

 

[Collector]