Finding good container soil "in the wild"

Hi all,

I'm in a short-term rental in the southern hemisphere, where winter is coming.  I just bought a couple of containers and some seed, and now I need soil.

I might be able to buy some soil at the local Home Depot-style place, but that will require me to take a taxi or a bus. Obviously, not best practice at the moment.

So I need to forage for soil, so to speak. There's a fair amount of unowned, unkept property around with no buildings nearby, so I may be in luck.

Two doors down, there's some soil with clover cover on unimproved property. This seems like it might be much more promising than soil with grass cover (or worse, bare soil).

I did buy a bit of chemical fertilizer as well; I'd prefer to make compost but it's really not an option in my current place. It might be an option in my next place, where I move on April 18.

Advice, suggestions welcome. If this seems like a bananas idea, you're welcome to say that too.

Thanks!

The clover soil definitely sounds like the best. if you want a traditional potting soil like blend, the most important thing to do would be to sift it through some mesh to remove large chunks. Since composting isn't an option, have you considered worms? you can have them in any container almost -- mine are in a plastic underbed bin. if that isn't an option, I would recommend trying to keep as much organic material in the soil as possible; with the clover soil I would put the dirt in the bin green side down, like turning sod under. that might tie up nutrients short term, but once they start breaking down it will be good. The only disadvantage of natural soil over a potting mix is you know the potting mix has good water retention qualities, with soil you might have to 'baby' it a bit. if you have heavy clay soil, put some gravel at the bottom of your container.

As for buying, the best return/least effort would be to buy something like well-rotted manure (I got some at Home depot under a name like Black Gold or Cow or similar) or compost. that would be nutrients, water retention and more all in one. the most efficient use of it would be not to mix all of it in immediately but monitor how the soil is doing. if you're lucky, your native soil won't be overly clay or sand, in which case you might not need the compost/manure for anything other than a nutrient application. Don't forget the importance of mulch in retaining water, either.
even if you can't have a dedicated worm bin, try and drop a few worms in each container, depending on size.

Also look for downed/rotten trees or limbs. If it’s rotten enough for you to break apart with your hands (or even close to that) it’s a good filler in the bottoms of your containers. It will absorb and hold water well, while breaking down into soil.