A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Peat disguised as Manure now in my lasagna bed! PLEASE HELP! :(

I am so upset right now. I bought what I thought to be Composted Cow Manure for my Lasagna garden, and it turns out that it was 95% reed sedge peat and only 5% manure!! Yet the huge print on the front of the bag said "COMPOST AND MANURE". Here is the link to the stuff I bought:

http://www.michiganpeat.com/retail/gm_compost.htm

It's partly my own fault because I was so excited about making my lasagna garden that I didn't look at the ingredients, I just assumed that since the bag says "COMPOST AND MANURE" in huge letters that it would be what it was! But no, this stuff is almost ALL PEAT! I put 4 40lb bags of this stuff down! Should I just try to dig all this stuff off and throw it away and start my lasagna garden a different time when I can get REAL composted manure? I don't even have a wheelbarrow to haul all this stuff off with, nor room for one on my property for one because I live in a townhouse. I don't know what to do now and I feel like all my hard work was for nothing! I don't like that the verdict is still out on Peat and I really don't want to use it! PLEASE HELP!

I'm not an expert, but here is my opinion on the matter: the peat should eventually break down, however it will be using up most of the nitrogen. I would think that if you put down a nice thick layer of manure on top of the peat that you'd wind up with some nice, well composted, layers by spring or so. Like I said, I'm not an expert, so I may be wrong. Weezie will probably be by in a while to provide more knowledgable assistance.

Thanks so much, Sarah! I hope I have it all worked out now. I removed about half of the peat and replaced it with compost since I thought it may make my already acidic soil even more acidic. Hopefully the rest will break down relatively fast though. Thanks again!