I don’t quite understand how you can fill barrow loads if the material is under a clump of growing plants. Maybe I’m not getting the full picture. Given the propensity of Crocosmia to spread like crazy from the tiniest cormlet, I’d be wary of putting the compost it’s growing in around my garden. It won’t be any better as a conditioner or fertiliser than any other compost. If you do use it mulching is as good a purpose as any but it could need sieving first to exclude corms.

Well ,as crocosmia ncreases over the years it seems to grow on top of itself like one of those anthills you see in Africa wildlife documentaries.

When you attack the mound it is full of large and small corms with the toppermost growing as plants and sitting on a heap of rotted residue than has seemingly built up over a very good few years.

And yes ,there is an awful lot of it and it is quite easy to separate out the corms (shame I couldn't sell them as there are loads of them too)

Actually I don't think now that this stuff was laid down by generations of rotted crocosmia.

I am fairly sure that that was the location of some very large trunks of a cabbage palm (Cordyline) that half died in the two big freezes we had about 10 years ago.

The crocosmia had taken up residence on top of those old trunks.

Still ,generally is rough compost better that extremely rotted (almost dusty) compost? Does its ability to improve soils deteriorate when it becomes so fine so that you almost have to use it as a mulch or is it still good?

What about leaf mould ,? Does it too become extremely fine if left for a very long time?

Humus is the final state when the composting process is finished. It is mostly carbon and contains few nutrients.

However it has wonderful properties that enhance the soil, primarily it's ability to hold on to nutrients passing through the soil and making them available to plant roots, when otherwise the nutrients would just move down with the water table out of range of most plants. It is probably the the best non-fertilizer amendment for soil.

It is also hard to obtain commercially because few producers have the patience to create it (it takes many years) and few consumers would pay the cost for something that takes that long to make. It is like a fine wine or whiskey that has been aged for many years.

Because of that, producing it yourself or finding someone with an old discarded compost pile is the best way to get it. I would say that you have struck a vein of gardener's gold.

I would identify the soil in my garden that could use the most improvement, and dig it in there - at least six inches.

"Still ,generally is rough compost better that extremely rotted (almost dusty) compost? Does its ability to improve soils deteriorate when it becomes so fine so that you almost have to use it as a mulch or is it still good?"

Humus (completely finished compost) makes a terrible mulch - but it is a top-rated soil amendment. Dig it in to a bed that could use some soil improvement.

Partially finished compost (or what most people would just call "compost") isn't as good an amendment, but it does add organic matter (very helpful with sandy or clay soils) and it has some undigested nutrients that fungus will go after first, and then plant roots will get the leftovers.

"What about leaf mould ,? Does it too become extremely fine if left for a very long time?"

Leaf mold is the best kind of unfinished compost. It has more NPK nutrients than most other kinds of compost because it is allowed to decompose slowly and "cold". By that I mean there is minimum bacterial decomposition (which uses up nitrogen) and makes a compost pile hot. Leaf mold takes at least two years to break down and because of that is able to return more nitrogen to the soil. I am a huge fan of leaf mold - if you live in an area with deciduous trees don't bag and throw away those leaves in the fall! Find a place to stash those bags or make a pile you can ignore for two years and you will come back to Gardener's Gold. The French have used leaf mold to fertilize their kitchen gardens for hundreds of years.