3/4 of a Cubic Yard

On these warm almost summery February afternoons with still air and sunny temps near 60° I have been doing more spring chores.

Cotton burr compost

I got ten bags of soil amendments at Newman's, each one 2 cubic feet (so three quarters of a cubic yard combined). 

Five bags were soil builder mix, which is cotton bur compost, and five bags were topsoil.

I'll mix them together to build up the areas I want to plant around the newly arranged moss rock borders. 

Note:

Cotton bur compost does not have much NPK -- nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. It does have lots of trace minerals from the inputs to cotton growing, and it adds structure for moisture retention. It helps mitigate alkalinity a bit.

I had used mushroom compost to plant around the circle garden, and I'm reading now that it may not be a good choice -- too high in salts and it adds alkalinity which I don't need and it's too fine to support soil structure. 

Could that be a reason I've had trouble getting things going there? As a small amendment to existing soil it might be good, but as a planting mix not so much?

The cotton bur amendment is much better for planting (and not just as touted by sellers, it gets high marks in independent reviews.)

So I used the cotton bur mixed with the topsoil and filled the new planting bed, then added a bunch of just the cotton bur compost around a bunch of established plants. 

I watered everything well to keep it from blowing away (actually hooked up the hose, it was like being out there watering in summer).

I need to get bags of bark mulch to cover the bare soil now. 

I schlepped all 10 bags to the yard and it wasn't even that hard. I'm a little amazed at how easy all my chores and rock moving and tree transplanting and now toting and spreading bags of amendments have been.

Of course, it's the luxury of doing things very slowly over many days and well in advance of the spring rush. 

And in cool winter weather -- although it feels summery, the air at 60° is cool enough for working outside comfortably. And I only do a little bit each day, with months ahead to get it all done.