u/ZealousidealChair900

Due to circumstances, I'm wanting to put in a row of sunflowers to make a short term privacy border (which may mysteriously reappear next year/s as well). The problem is the existing soil is:

A) scraggly lawn

B) poor in general and very rocky

Given this, I'm likely going to have to rip out a line of sod then try to fill and build up actual dirt. Actually hauling in dirt is going to be an effort, and I'll try to improve what I have. What would ya'll say is the minimum for sunflowers? I just need a starting point. Expected size is ~20'×1'

Basically I've been doing this for almost a year now, since I got my chickens. My best place to dump their manure/wood chip bedding has been close to the neighbor's fence, so I've been covering the pile with grass clippings.

While I haven't noticed any heating up, I harvested some of the early stuff which was clearly at least partially decomposed to toss in the garden in March, which would have been... ~7-9 months of it sitting.

I don't stir or mix, because again, trying to limit any possible smells for the neighbors. That's rather important to me, as I don't have a sense of smell, and don't want to impose a bad smell on others. The last few months I've also added some Wine Cap mushroom starter to help break down the wood chips faster and to eventually work on getting the Wine Cap mycelium into the garden for nemotode control and plant benefits.