Clay cat litter

Is it acceptable to use litter clay to help as a binder as the sugar daddy here is so fine ever time it rains the organic material washes out of the garden beds I've been adding organic material by the truck load and been doing it since 2011 I've pretty much masted clay, caliche, glacial Alaskan soil but the sugar sand is russell co Alabama is just about beaten me as soon as the organic material get washed out the sand become polibaric once the sun hits it

Sounds like a challenging situation.

I would never buy commercial cat litter to add to soil. Gawd, that's a financial nightmare.

Personally I think what you need is biochar, and lots of it. It's a sponge and a buffer that helps keep plant-friendly natural fertilizers in the grow zone instead of leaching out.

Composted wood chips also give the soil some muscle and resilience -- worth considering.

My 2c.

There have been some discussions here on the forum about composting cat litter though not about using it as a mulch:

https://permies.com/t/210547/bentonite-cat-litter

https://permies.com/t/274607/Unused-Natural-kitty-litter-mix

https://permies.com/t/236254/Bentonite-clumping-cat-litter

https://permies.com/t/34946/composting/composting-kitty-litter

If you decide to try using the cat litter as a mulch please let us know how that turns out?

Other suggestions would be wood chips, leaves, coffee grounds or any organic matter.

I was at a workshop that included cob.  They had had trouble procuring clay.  We had bentonite cat litter - fresh- for our use.  We had to soak it to dissolve the clay.  

In later years, I bought cat litter to use as clay.  The stuff I had bought turned out to be particles bigger than sand and finer than gravel… pretty much cat litter granule size.

When I soaked, the clay dissolved and I was left with this other stuff….

Try to buy a sample before buying a large amount!

There is a pathogen associated with cat feces that is a mostly a threat to pregnant women.  Toxoplasmosis.  Can cause birth defects and miscarriage.

I think it’s a very bad idea to utilize used cat litter anywhere there could be possible future contact with humans.

Many hardware stores and most feed stores / farm supply sell bentonite in 50 pound bags.

Building suppliers selling rock, gravel, sand , roadbase etc often have material for sale by the truckload or yard.  I get samples of what’s available and test for clay content…. then order it delivered … for cob and adobe building and soil improvement.

Looks like I wasn’t clear on the cat litter i soaked.  It was composed of fine rock particles with a very thin coating of clay.

Probably not very useful as cat litter, also not very useful for the soil I had at the time…..