Kim Male

Thanks so much everyone! Am going to take some time to digest all the info. In the meantime though caught a tree service truck and yesterday had a couple of loads of chips dumped in the back yard.

Besides the surround, our pool is not concrete but instead there's plastic liner for the walls and some thin substance covering the bottom that's easily broken with a sledge hammer.

Again, many thanks.

That's exciting! So glad I asked for input. Have looked at other videos regarding the benefits of wood chips but hadn't seen this one. OK. So, that's the road we're going down! Decision made.

But not sure about the mushroom additive. What kind? How much? When? How? Do we really need a concrete mixer? We're older with limited time, energy, and resources. Could we just sprinkle rock dust and mycelium around, work it in?

THANK YOU!

The hydrophonics idea, though intriguing, is just too big a project for us.

Thanks for feedback!

Pool is located in wide-open backyard with southern exposure so it gets lots of sun all day being in zone 9 on the East coast just a couple of blocks from the marsh. There is a saltwater pond, good for fishing, just yards from the pool site. And there's a small existing greenhouse which will work tacked onto the back of a shed.

Because of those elements already in place and because the yard isn't real big, we've decided the best use of the old pool for us is as a garden spot. We hope to plant the back yard pretty full with fruit trees, berry bushes, perennials, etc.

I had looked at the greenhouse site and other sites involving water ideas but with the existing pond which is great (rises and falls with the tide), felt those ideas weren't the best choices for our situation.

What we plan on doing is creating a big compost pile in the pool using yard waste folks put out for pick-up on a weekly basis, probably adding fill dirt and sand as we go along.

My main concern is that we may create problems doing this. Certainly this would be a compost pile too large to turn.

Again, all suggestions appreciated.

We recently bought a home with an older full-size swimming pool which we are not interested in renovating, but would prefer to use that space for gardens. Initial research indicates a pretty hefty price for fill dirt, etc, so we're thinking instead of filling it with lawn debris which we can pick up in the neighborhood and maybe having a landscaping service dump off some cut-up trees. We realize in time the "pile" will shrink so are considering layering in some fill dirt.

Anyone have any experience with this? Any suggestions? Any problems with having a compost pile this large?

Thanks so much for any feedback.