Hi there,

I would like to improve the soil on my property, which is clay-like
and very hard to work with (hasn't been worked for over 40 years). I
would like to try to add a large amount of compost to improve the
quality of soil, but I need a large amount to do this. I have a
compost pile going, to which I add kitchen waste, grass clippings, and
twigs, but the resulting quantity is not enough and seems like only a
symbolic amount when I look of the size of the potential garden-to-be
(I have about 400 sq. m. available for gardening, but will not use
that much in reality!).

The local sawmill has a huge pile of "left-overs", which contains aged
bark, wood chippings and sawdust - and the deeper I dug into the pile
the more humus-like the content looked. They told me that was waste
for them so I could take as much as I can. They also said fresh
sawdust was also available if I need it.

So, if I take advantage of this large amount of carbon-rich material,
I would also need a source of nitrogen to supplement this. The only
thing that comes to mind is paying for a truck-load of cow manure.

My idea is to get a truck-load of the sawmill "waste" and a truck-load
of cow manure, create a big pile by adding thin layers of the 2
materials, cover the pile with nylon and wait one year and hope for
the best!

Does this sound like a recipe for success? Is the ratio of 1:1 (carbon
and nitrogen sources) OK in this case? Should I also use fresh sawdust
and not just the aged "waste" stuff (which also contains rotted
sawdust)? Can I expect finished compost after one year?

Any ideas would be greatly appeciated!
Joe