berm creation

All the cut out sod from 3 large garden beds we dug along with all kinds of "garden clippings" was piled in a long row about 2 ft high. The sod had genergous amounts of soil still attached. It is one to two years old. Nothing was done to compost this. It was just exposed to the elements. Can this just be covered over with black dirt and planted ? Would what is underneath continue to decay ? Would the topsoil just wash off, even if applied in gentle slopes? I know this should have been more thoroughly composted, to have more uniform soil, but wondering if this plan would still work.

I enjoy work so I would like to mix the pile with native soil and then use it. I would be concerned about root fungus, etc that might develope in your new plantings. Also compost is not always a good draining medium.

Thank you for your response, but, gosh, we enjoy work too. That is why we have dug and planted 3 beds with perennials we raised ourselves, built a deck, composted everything else regularly and in large quantity, planted and cared for about 25 trees in the city park on which our property sits, as a gift to the city. We had planned on just hauling this massive pile of sod off the property, but realized we liked the screening effect of the raised area. Had we known from the start we would want to create a berm there, we would have been actively composting the material all along. It is actually quite a solid mass at this time, as though there had always been a raised area of land there. It drains well due to a high sand content in the soils of our area. It is just that I know it is not completely broken down all the way through the pile and I wanted to know if the sod, or whatever one would call this material now, would continue to break down once it was covered with soil ? I know what I am proposing is not ideal by any means, but just wondered if it had a chance of working, if anyone had ever tried this successfully? Thanks for any input.

Sounds like you can plant in to me as long as it has good drainage. I love berms as they add a little interest to a flat landscape.

Down here 50/50 is sold to landscapers who want to create a berm. Though 70/30 (70% sand, 30% muck) I have been told would be better but more expensive).

50/50 is 50% sand and 50% muck (cheap top soil)

They pile it on all sorts of junk to create the berm.

Thank you for the encouragement. I'll have to hope you're right because we went ahead and covered it with a great deal of soil. I've never gardened without creating a quality bed from the bottom up, double digging and all of that so I have a lot of anxiety about this. I'll post a picture next year whether it works or not....it can be a "what works" or a "what not to do" picture ! It already provides some screening for our side of the berm and some interest to the park side of the berm. Thank you again.