S King

Yeah, I've been composting large piles of leaves and grass and have been getting quite a bit of good soil material. Last year was something like a pile 5'x15'x1.5' of mostly finished compost. I've also been dumping something like 8-10" of cut up and quite compacted leaves over the garden for several years, and there is definitely a layer of soil a few inches thick above the solid clay that was there before.

But at this point that line is getting mixed in with the clay, which I'm really excited about! But I was just curious if anyone had tried paying close attention.

I like removing leaves from the dump, but it also takes fuel to go get the leaves as I don't usually drive the gas chugging truck to town, compared to the little sipper car. Not sure if it would be doing harm or good in the long run, either on the pocket book vs buying soil or on the environment in general.

I don't *need* more soil necessarily, I'm getting to good spot over a few years just doing what I already am, and I enjoy the journey and slowly improving. But I wouldn't deny more good soil that was going to the dump anyways if it made sense.

Has anyone ever tried estimating the difference between weight of compostable material and the resulting compost? I know it would be a hard to scientifically do, but just curious of people's gut feeling. Someone doing bin composting might have some luck.

I just see all the leaves being thrown into the dump and wonder how much compost or leaf mould they would generate.

I wonder if I was to take 10 or 15 of the bags, roughly weigh them, and then pile the leaves in the middle of the woods and come back a few years later, would whatever I piled up would weight close to the same? I imagine you'd have to let it dry for a while to get a good comparison since leaves are fairly dry.

Greg B Smith wrote: The pics below are composted wood chips that were put down 2 plus years ago. Also pictured is the compacted clay.  Zone 8 Central Mississippi...

I know it's a long shot but is there an update to this situation? I am in almost the exact situation, north central MS, at least 4 ft of clay, and I've been working on a solid layer of organic on top. The area had zero top soil when I moved here. I've now got about 7 inches of leaf and crass clippings that have been breaking down for a year or two, and it seems like this year things are growing well enough in it..

There is still a very obvious divide between clay and organic, and I don't know if it is worth fighting or not. I feel like "punching through" the clay would be an excercise in futility due to the depth, and I wonder if my best bet is to just bring in some soil to mix in and just garden on top of the clay? Or just keep waiting as the crawdads and fireants keep bringing up mounds of clay into the compost.