swamp muck + Leaves

I have an excess supply of leaves and very little nitrogen besides food scraps and garden waste that I use for my normal compost bin. What I have a lot of is swamp muck. I have a stream, and about half of the woods is mucky thick black glop that you can barely walk through in boots. I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow, but would I have a decent chance at  composting my leaves with this muck, assuming I layer it in with the leaves? Im not expecting or caring to get a hot pile, but anything quicker than leaf mould would be great. I'm in southern new england. Thanks :)

I was just reading about something similar.  Chinampa are “floating” gardens built by layering creek silt with other organic matter and retaining with pilings; either within the water or adjacent.

https://www.thoughtco.com/chinampa-floating-gardens-170337

Pre-Aztec agriculture from the 1200s.

Excellent suggestion Ruth!

If you have a way of making biochar, it would lighten the mix and support the microbes you need for decomposition.

The problem I always have with leaves is they mat down and take forever to decompose in my climate. If I put them sparingly in a chicken run, they break them up (maple leaves are huge here), but the ducks just poop on them in layers and it quickly goes anaerobic if I use too many without something in between. The best "something" I've got is chipped/shredded branches but they take even longer than leaves to decompose.

I'm known to soak both biochar and woody stuff in Liquid Gold and water to boost the nitrogen levels. ( https://permies.com/t/137403/Making-liquid-gold-inputs-safely )

Encouraging mushrooms might help also. Different varieties are known for different things, but oyster mushrooms seem to be good decomposers, and Stropharia (spelling? If I've got that name wrong, I'll try to correct it later.)

heres what some of the muck/soil looks like




some areas are much swampier than others. I'm kind of thinking I might not want to mess with it after all. I dont think this spot has ever been part of any industrial production, but the stream at the very top of the second picture may have carried some undesirables to the area in the past. I dont really feel like getting the soil tested to make sure, but maybe I will eventually if I get the motivation.

How did the muck end up composting?

I’ve been doing the same in dredging up the muck, letting it drain a bit, and using it like compost, partially because the small oxbow near us is threatened by sedimentation during floods from erosion upstream, and wetlands along our river are very rare. Thus hopefully we can preserve the wetland and all of its diversity for as long as possible. One “hill” I mulched with grasses and goldenrod, weighed down the mulch with some sticks, covered with mud and planted potatoes. Later on a volunteer black nightshade grew, and bore especially large, delicious berries.