if you have room for a full load of woodchips you can post your need on chipero.com and a tree company near you will get in contact
you can see if there is a horse stable near you, sometimes they will even haul manure to you, just to get rid of it
you can pick up bagged leaves at the curb in your neighborhood
tbc

Thanks. After checking out the DeKalb County compost--it's greatI--I learned that they deliver. Minimum amount is 10 cubic yards and the cost is 7.50 per cubic yard. We can use 10 cubic yards.

congrats and envy ;/ from Gwinnett

We are fortunate. As I said, the compost is great--black, loose, no trash, sweet soil smell. And the supply is apparently endless.

did relay your info to a friend in Dunwoody,
so you are a veggie-gardener?
far fetched question: are you willing to share your expertise with someone still struggling with GA's climate?

I did a strawbale garden for two years and turned the straw in at the end of the season. it composted and now the soil is very workable.

Thanks. As I indicated in my OP, our site needs a lot of work. We're getting 10 cubic yards of compost from the County tomorrow. We're going to add cow manure as well. In the fall we may incorporate horse manure from Little Creek Farm, the County's horse part, and put in a green manure cover crop. And beyond that we'll continue incorporating organic matter into the soil on our site. In addition to a 33' X 11' plot for cut flowers and vegetables, we have extensive beds with shrubs and flowers.

We also have very heavy clayey (?) soil. The sphagnum peat moss is great, but since I only had a tiny space, got pig manure - was almost waterproof!! Nothing could penetrate....ugh!

The best thing to fix and open up heavy clay soil is adding gypsum. And it is one of the cheapest soil amendments out there. You can usually buy a 40 pound bag of it from Lowes for about what you will pay for 5 pounds of "rose food" or "vegetable food" that are mixed fertilizers.

If you can add gypsum directly to the subsoil that is most completely clay, do that first (as when starting a new area for a garden). Mix it in at the rate of 40 pounds per 1000 square feet of subsoil. Then when you are working with the top soil, remember to also apply the gypsum there, at a rate more like 20-30 pounds per 1000 square feet. Gypsum has calcium and sulfur, both of which will over a period of years leach down into the subsoil. But putting it directly in the subsoil gets the subsoil healthy as rapidly as possible. Gypsum will help with drainage, but also water retention during drought. It helps air to penetrate the soil, and helps it become fluffy again in record time after a rain, so you can work it easily as soon as possible.

If you need to raise the pH of your soil, you must use calcium in the form of agricultural lime though. Gypsum tends to not raise pH. Don't confuse these two types of "lime". And there's also "lime" that is dolomite limestone. Each has different characteristics, though they all contain calcium. Be careful to read the label before buying your "lime". Make sure, somewhere on the big, you find either the word "gypsum", "dolomite", or "ag lime". Gypsum is the best for improving heavy clay soil, however, ag lime will do the job of raising the pH, and loosen the soil to a lesser degree.

More on gypsum