Not even degraded land but just land where the natural soil is poor, for example when you're sitting on clay soil. On a smallish scale like your own property you can get in touch with arborists and get them to dump plant mulch in your driveway (often for free since they avoid the dumping fees), then spread it across the ground with some urea to help the bacteria break down the wood fibres. Within a year or two, you don't need to wait 16 years, you've got incredibly rich soil on the property, with the clay underneath acting as a long-term storage sponge for moisture.