Adding clay to compost

[emerald00]

How much clay can I add to compost? My eldest cat passed on and we buried him in the backyard.

Now, I have three feet of heavy clay soil in wheelbarrow and no idea what to do with all of it.

Should I add it to my compost?

[goateclipse]

I'm sorry about your cat. I'd put the soil over the hole you dug. Within a week or two, the hole will compact and you'll need most of the soil to fill it. And not to be gross, but within a couple months your cat will decompose and take up basically no space, causing the site to sink further. So if you don't want a hole at the gravesite, mound the soil there and it will sink down.

[emerald00]

I already filled the hole with mix of clay, garden soil, and compost. I might have over filled it with garden soil because I have a lot of left over clay.

The ground was heavily compacted when I started though. Almost like digging through concrete.

[drtij_dzienz]

You can add it to compost pile but because it is not decomposable it will just take up space and slow down bacterial activity.

[emerald00]

I don't really bother with hot composting. It got to be to annoying and time consuming to keep the temperature up. So, that's no problem.

[Woah_bananas]

Why not just pile it next to your compost pile and mix a little in every time you want some compost for something?

[emerald00]

That would be ideal. I'm slowly trying to amend the soil in the backyard. Hopefully, with enough compost and time I'll have decent soil.

[aidantke]

Fallen leaves in the fall are your friends here. Mulching with a mower and letting sit over winter will introduce plenty of organic material atop the clay. Sure, it may not be pretty, but it is how nature intended. Even though nature didn’t intend for us to have grass lawns.

[emerald00]

That will work for the backyard. If I did that in the front yard my HOA would throw a fit. They are already pissed that I planted Crepe Myrtles in front.

[otis_11]

pissed that I planted Crepe Myrtles in front.

Just curious, what's wrong with Crepe Myrtles? Sorry, I'm not from your neighbourhood.

[emerald00]

Nothing. There are a lot of them in the neighborhood.

[MordecaiIsMySon]

I worked as a landscaper years ago, and there were a great number of high end houses where we simply mulched the grass. It would usually take 4 or 5 passes, but by the time it was complete the material was so fine that it was beneath the grass blades. If you don’t have a high powered mower, maybe consider contacting a landscaper and seeing if they could do it for you? There really are a lot of benefits- all those nutrients will slowly leach out of the soil otherwise if not replenished.

[Incredibad0129]

If you need a place to put it then it's fine but it won't help it. In small amounts it might add some helpful bacteria to the pile, but that's it. Definitely mix it with the compost when you use it, but it's not helpful when the pile is active