I don't really want to donate my own compost to the garden, 'cause I'm selfish that way. I do have access to an area where all the folks around here dump their yard waste. I thought maybe I'd find some compost or whatever if I poked around there but this late in the season it is mostly limbs.

There is a large pile of fresh to dry grass clippings that I could get to without causing an avalanche or something equally dumb. I'm wanting to incorporate the grass clippings into the soil and thought I'd check with the people here and see if it a/ would cause any issues b/ make the soil loose and increase the water holding capacity and c/ be ok with just grass clippings and no other amendments.

So if it is a good thing to do - How much grass do you think I should add. This is LEAN soil not much in the way of anything other than sand. I did find one bed that had a bunch of old mulch under a few inches of soil that the poor plants can't seem to penetrate.

The soil is very dry, the water just runs off and since there isn't really any water access it needs to be improved to minimize water carrying... 'cause I'm just as lazy as I am selfish. LOL

Thanks

I don't like to add raw grass clippings to soil. There are a couple of issues to consider. One, undecomposed organic matter in the soil is not helpful to the plants trying to grow there right now. Grass clippings in particular tend to be very hot - very high in nitrogen. They need to be balanced with cooler materials like dead leaves, low in nitrogen, while they decompose. It can be done in the soil obviously but this is what compost piles are for - to balance the nitrogen in the materials while they decompose. So they may not decompose at all while in the soil without a balancing material, or they may decompose so fast that they literally burn everything around them. And it's hard to get clumps of grass clippings to break up, the clumps tend to stick together and go anaerobic in the middle which is not good for the plant roots around it.

Second consideration is the herbicides some people use on their lawns. Or more correctly, that their lawn maintenance company uses. Some of these are highly persistent and while of very low toxicity to people and animals, can actually still be damaging to your veggie seedlings even after being eaten by a horse, pooped out, and composted as horse manure. So if they're on raw grass clippings, they'll affect people's seedlings.

It sounds like sheet composting would be your best bet - just get ALL the gardeners to start adding layers of their OWN grass now (herbicide free), then leaves in the fall, and used coffee grounds whenever they can get some.

Can you start a compost bin or two on-site?

This isn't a vegetable plot. It is an ornamental garden. The plants are well-established for the most part. Although (my personal opinion) the plants are being moved around a bit too often for this dry hot weather.

I could make an onsite compost pile (or 20)nobody would try and stop me but I was looking for a quick fix. LOL People around here seem more interested in plants than soil. I like dirt so am sticking to that part of the process.

I guess I have silty sand because this stuff is HARD. It is almost as hard as clay but when you do get the clods to bust they break up into fine pieces instead of chunks like clay does. The fine bits just reform into a hard layer once it is watered and left to dry.

The area is mulched but the water just goes through the mulch and runs off the beds and into the paths. We do water but I do not think it is a very effective system. I've been digging holes and trying to break up the top soil and watering into the holes instead of watering the top of the mulch or soil.

I guess I'll just make some "community garden" compost and keep picking out what I can from around the dump area to use to amend the soil.

I can "liberate" the grass clippings and hide them until fall and start a regular compost pile and maybe some leaf mold. I can find a place that is a little out of sight near the garden and get some wire fence from the junk yard and see what happens.

Thanks again.

I've never really done any reading on silty or sandy soils but it looks like silt is a good thing to have. I'll just have to do some work on it. It certainly does not seem to be lacking in fertility, plants grow like crazy. It is just so dang hard to get water to go in instead of running off.

Silt will break apart with your fingers or when dropped onto a hard surface. Clay won't.

"...but it looks like silt is a good thing to have."

Ehh. Doesn't have the workability of sand or nutrients of clay...or maybe I just cuss it 'cause that's what I have.

If you indeed have silt, the addition of sand can be a big help in attaining friability and permanently changes the soil triangle favorably (in terms of the gardener).

Adding sand to clay is a controversial suggestion and I'm not going there.

So just out of curiosity what happens when you mix up silt and clay? Being in GA I do find the occasional pocket of clay but mainly it seems to be this white...silver...grey? stuff that I have.

Does it do good with patios and such? Can I use it as a leveling base for a patio or path or ummm a wall?

Look up you county soil survey and go to the map sheets to find out a useful description for the location in question. My home garden is in an area of "coarse" sand. Most of the long-used farms around this county, OTOH, are in very fine sandy loam (silty). Hugely different, and massively more productive.