This is a compost pile. I live in an area where cotton is grown. When the cotton is ginned (seed mechanically separated from the lint) the lint goes through cleaners to remove the leaf and other trash which is piled up as a waste. I brought in some of this gin trash home and mixed it with chicken manure and discarded cotton seed. I added water and turned the pile every couple weeks to add oxygen. After the compost goes through a heat and breaks down to humus, it is a good soil amendment. In addition to the fertilizer effect, compost enhances the texture of most soils. It increases the nutrient and water holding capacity of sandy soils by forming aggregates with the soil and it improves the aeration and tilth of clay soils by getting between the clay particles and keeping them from binding. I tilled in 3 wheelbarrow loads of compost into the row where the fall garden is planted.
Our soil is naturally a black clay that is very difficult to till, but I have improved it over the years by adding composted gin trash and 4 commercial truck loads of sandy soil. All praise and thanks to God, that we now have a nice, productive garden.
