Now I’ve got a healthy pile of clay “chunks” that are starting to pile up, and the earth beneath the plastic is even more clay and rocks, I feel like I might be piling one problem onto another.

As long as the piles are completely surrounded by waterlogged, wet clay, they are very durable, because the wood breaks down very slowly in an anoxic environment. But if the mud starts to dry out ...

Fortunately, there’s a natural solution to change that red clay into fertile garden soil ... weeds from the garden and livestock manure can be returned to a compost pile to make rich, fertile soil.