This is sort of a science question???

Question

okay so my family has been doing some yard work lately, and about two weeks ago we had to dig a trench in our front yard. now we are about to fill it in, but all the dirt that was originally in the ground is extremely hard.

now here is come the question:

my dad wants to fill in the trench by breaking up every individual dirt clod, and put it back in the trench.

But I think it would be more time efficient if we just took all the dirt clods, put them evenly back into the trench (without breaking them up first), and then put water over the clods. that way the water will do the breaking for us.

So which is the best way, would my way even work?

Answer 1

Once the dirt settles in, you should have the same amount of dirt either way.

Answer 2

I'm sure there is still a lot of loose dirt though so take the dirt clods put it in the hole and fill in between with the loose dirt or you could tamp the clods down with a tamper as your filling the hole back up.