Will it improve my soil?

Hi all! For about a year+ now I've been piling all of my yard "garbage" at one spot, after I covered all of the exposed soil with leaves and cut weed. Now this pile has been rotting/decomposing for some time, and over time I also pourd some used cooking oil (not much, about once per 2-3 months). I wanted to plant some new plants in pots, but ran out of planting soil. I had an idea to use it as planting soil, mixed with heavy red soil. Will it work? Can I use it to improve the soil in different areas of my yard?

Jasper Ortega wrote:I also pourd some used cooking oil

What kind of oil? I'd personally never do that but I guess if it's organic and you don't use much it won't do damage. Seems like it would coat the organic matter and repel water...

Why wouldn't you mix it with real soil?
John S
PDX OR

Maybe I am wrong but oil kills my dirt, I don't have soil.  Maybe it will decompose in a compost pile though that seems doubtful.

What you were doing sounds great up until the cooking oil...

My suggestion would be to buy more planting soil aka potting soil if you want success.

It is possible to experiment with what you have on just a few plants.

By the way, I have found the best way to get rid of cooking oil is to put it in a can and when full put that in a plastic bag and drop in with your regular household trash.

I have had no issues slipping some oil or fat into a hot compost pile core in the past. The microbes chew it up like anything else. It sounds like your pile might be better described as a cold compost pile. If you can find some nice crumbly finished looking compost at the base of the pile I would consider utilizing it. If you don't find anything resembling soil, I'd avoid utilizing it personally.