Hi, I hope someone can help me with this. The back of our property drops off dramatically, about 15 to 20 feet and is very dry. I am building it up slowly. I have sunk our former tub, plug out, hoping that this will help the soil retain some moisture. The trouble is I don't have much soil. I have filled the tub with two garbage bags of sawdust mixed with some soil, a bit of sheep manure (a quart?) and a bit of compost (I don't have much now, but am making more - lusting after an industrial shredder, faint hope). How much soil to sawdust should I have to support plant life? I expect it to take a while but I'd like to be on the right track from to start. Along the same lines, I have a pile of prunings, clippings, yard waste, a few larger limbs, all organic stuff, roughly 12 x 12 feet and 8-10 feet deep. Trying to build up the back drop off. Can I compost this? I cannot move any of this stuff. Most of it is 4 to 12 feet long. Budget is an issue. I can get a lot of sawdust, possible some horse manure (no one in town has any bagged manure for sale at the moment) and there is the garden clippings. Could I compost on top of this? Any advice on long range, economical, large scale composting? The one snag is the lack of soil. Any suggestion will be appreciated. Thanks, Johnnyjumpup
If there's no money you may have to just work with the existing topography. Organic matter will be bound to decompose and settle over time, for filling you need something with mineral content like soil. If weeds are being pulled up with clumps of soil on the roots these can be used as they are at least partly soil. How your filling activities might affect adjoining property should also be considered. Coarse organic debris like prunings is probably best handled by running it through a shredder and spreading it as mulch. This follows the natural model of plant debris falling on the ground and being processed by the soil system on or near the surface of the soil. Maybe you can get someone to give you a shredder for Christmas or save up for one over a period of time.
If you want wood chips call any tree service that might operate near you, they are almost always looking for a place to put their chips.
Thank you both for replying so quickly. There is a tree trimming outfit that comes thru in the spring for the power poles. Will keep an eye out for them. I would love to have a big pile of shredded tree prunings. I dream of having a huge supply of strawy manure. There is some soil that rides in on the odd clump of grass/weeds but mostly the big pile is soilless prunings. It does settle every year. Will sand be useful at all? It will fill in the spaces a bit but don't think there are many soil building organisims. How about subsoil? I could possibly find some of each. I'm working in cooperation with the manure and a load of sawdustneighbour. I'm the labour. If I am lucky enough to get a load of wood chips and a load of fresh or not so fresh manure, how much soil would I need to generate compost? 5:5:1? or at least give it a fighting chance? I do make compost, but so far it is going on my vegetable and flower beds and it's never enough. It seems almost wasteful to put it on the long term project at the back. I'm curious about the sawdust/soil mix in the bathtub. I think the sawdust will take a few years to break down but hope it acts a bit like peatmoss in that it retains some moisture in the soil. thanks again for the input.
Alan Bloom used a layer of plastic below the surface to create damp soil for planting. At UBC blue clay was used to make a naturalistic pond. Anything that impedes drainage should have potential. Pages here discussing mulching, amending and organic matter may be of interest. http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda Chalker-Scott/
I know that a bog garden tends to a very silty soil, but I would seriously watch any ideas of 'adding sand'. Make sure you talk/research several places to have a good idea on the ratio needed for the general grouping of plants you have. Sand is soooo easily overused. (And NEVER EVER listen to the old man who tells you to add sand to almost exclusively clay soil to help loosen it up...)
Thanks for reminding me not to put sand in my bog garden. I was thinking of putting it on my brush pile to help speed up composting but would probably have strayed into putting it in the tub. I fished out a small dead shrew or mouse after a heavy rain last week which is why I filled it up with sawdust as an interim measure. Then I mixed in what spare soil I could lay my hands on. Will try composting on top of this to improve the soil. I don't have any clay soil at all. I am actively searching out a source of wood chips. I've been reading MickieS plan to turn her swimming pool into a sunken garden which has all sorts of interesting possibilities. Johnnyjumpup
