As pointed, out, you should compost it ... you need relatively similar
amounts of brown matter and green matter for ideal composting, so some grass
clippings would, as pointed out, be good. Incorporate the two well, wet
them down, and turn often.

Make sure the grass clippings don't have weed killer on them.

If the sawdust happens to be willow, it is said that willow trees produce a
natural herbicide. There's also a tree that can sprout millions of sprouts
out of its own wood chips. But if you have lumberyard sawdust I think it's
not an issue as it's not that type of tree.

You'll have an excellent ammendment for clay soil.

For this year, while you're waiting for the compost to cook down, you can
add some peat and till it as best you can. Of the vegetables, carrots have
a hard time in clay, so you can use the shorter fatter types. For melons
you can enrich the soil around them and they will do well in clay.
Everything else, from my humble personal experience, grows without major
difficulties in a clayish soil as long as it has enough organic matter to
support life, and some fertilization.

A cover crop would be handy in the part you're not using, I take it the soil
is fallow. If it already has something other than weeds growing there I'd
tend to leave it there and turn it over when you add the compost.


"Joe Jamies" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

About 10 cubic metres of fresh fir sawdust was just delivered to my
garden site. The soil is basically clay and very hard to work with. I
would like to use this sawdust to improve the soil structure.

Should I compost the sawdust in a pile (or several piles), or can I
spread the sawdust over my soil so it can compost "in place" (due to
the large amount of sawdust)? As a nitrogen source, I am thinking of
using urea. How long before this soil is ready for planting
vegetables?

My vegetable garden will take up half the site, so I would like to
prepare that soil ASAP. I would like to use the other half of the site
for trying other ways of improving soil, eg. cover crops, etc. Can I
start some cover crops now in the area I will not be using for my
vegetable patch? Any suggestions on what a good combination of cover
crops would be?

Thanks
Joe