More manure and clarification please

[cocopops]

I posted a thread about what to do with the trailer load of horse manure I received.  Following the advice I was given I decided the manure / cardboard idea was worth a go.  We are still renovating our house and my OH does not really have the time to start digging it in.  I have a long-standing back problem that does need exercise to aid, but this is a bit to heavy at this stage.

Anyway, our friends delivered another trailer load of horse manure, mixed with straw, and the pile is getting bigger.  Along with the chicken's used straw x poo bedding and rabbit / guinea pig's means that I have tonnes of potential fertiliser - or do I?  Are they all ok to pile together, or is some of it not good for gardens?

From what I can gather I need to spread the manure / straw mix, cover with cardboard and sprinkle weed killer.  Do I then cover it with plastic sheeting (which I have), or leave it open.  As the area that I am hoping going to use as a veggie garden was used to burn the branches of the trees last year (no weeds), do I need to use weed killer or is the soil totally unsuitable.  My OH keeps asking me these questions and for once I don't know the answer  ;)

[cocopops]

[manicscousers]

can't remember which thread it was but we took out the nasty weeds, covered the ground with the thick cardboard, covered that with well rotted manure, then weed control and then, 2 weeks before planting, we removed the weed control so the birds can eat the bugs, lovely, friable soil, never used weed killer  :)
we didn't use the chicken bedding, that's stored seperately 'cos it's a bit strong, don't know how rotted your 'muck 'is, some stuff doesn't like it too fresh  :)

[cocopops]

Thanks for that.  What do you use as weed control? :-[

[manicscousers]

when we first started this plot, anything we could get our hands on, compost bags cut in half, black plastic, woven stuff from ebay..weighed down with bags of weeds, old bricks we had dug up..we still do this on some of the beds, using bags of leaves this year to hold the woven stuff down  ;D