I always use fresh horse manure and haven't encountered any problems with burning young plants, unlike cow manure which I compost. I don't like cow manure because of the toadstools that grow from it in the garden.
The past several days have been perfect, just cool enough and sunshine. I went into the garden a bit ago to check on it and two climbing roses on the back wall are alive and growing new limbs and green leaves - they didn't die in the 2011 heat cooking 105-107 temp. every day for two months. The rest of them across that wall, were cooked to death. I'm wondering about using a tall cane to tie them to instead of using the lattice behind them. It's the heat of the lattice that cooked them. It's not quite so bad on that left side but every part of the two roses attached to the lattice died, so that would happen again.
Remember all my plants and flowers are in containers. Carrots and turnips in containers made it through the freezing weather because I covered them with moving blankets the two times I knew it was going to freeze out there. I also covered the 40+ strawberry plants and they look fine, all nice and green.
The blackberry sticks I got that looked dead, now look green behind the brown of the sticks - I can see that green. Two of those sticks are one stick but one has three limbs attached to the main stick.
The Lantana flower plant, I only covered it two nights, is doing fine - I think that is the best perennial to have among the food plants for pollination because it grew fast spreading out and up and had flowers from the time I got it in hot summer and through the fall and even Christmas had flowers blooming. The Humming Bird flower plant, also a perennial looks dead but I bent a limb to see if it broke and it didn't so I left the plant alone, maybe it recovers itself. I did not cover that plant.
Now, the plants under the grow lamp:
Every cup has plants in it now. I have six types of peppers growing - yes, I guess I overdid it getting that many, but I don't know which peppers would do best here and I like every one I got. I have five kinds of tomatoes growing, from cheery to larger, and I like every one of them. Every cup has too many plants in it, the tomatoes especially so I have to deal with that probably tomorrow. I'll leave a couple in a cup and plant a few more from the cup into a larger pot, 5 inches across and 4 inches deep. I have to do that immediately with four kinds of onions because they are definitely crowded. I'll have to do it with peppers in the not distant future but those are growing more slowly. I need to do that with celery fairly soon, too.
The family who lost the loved one asked me if I wanted something from the house that belonged to their deceased father. I said I would take the pepper plant as he was proud of buying that from the Ag county people who were growing non hot jalapenos. I have put that plant in the sun and will take care of it so it grows peppers.