What to plant on clay soil....HELP!

Hello
I have just joined this forum and need a little help with what to plant on clay soil. My family moved into our house 18 months ago and we really have not done much with the garden. The 2 area's I need help with is a rockery (of sorts)..It has rocks around it, in a square shape,approx 1 metre by 1 metre. Plus an area under our back window. 1 half a metre in width and approx 5 metres in length.
The soil is clay but our garden also gets very water logged as there is little drainage in our area.

Any tips/advice on what to plant in these area's?

Many Thanx
Cookie3

 

Dig loads of coa rse grit and compost into the clay. This will improve drainage, aeration and moisture retentention during dry spells. That way you'll have much more choice over what to grow. If it is entirely clay you will be very limited unless you do the sand/compost combo, as during the dry spells it will be too hard for young plants to push their roots into.

 

Hi Cookie,

For some reason there is a train of thoght that says clay soil is a nightmare, and whilst a hard pan is bed news-at least for an aching back, clay in general retains moisture and nutrients, so although it seems bad it isn`t.

There are some plants that won`t let clay stop them.


It sounds like the area with rocks is in fact acting as a raised bed. Raised beds practically eliminate any drainage issues, and that can be the way you overcome the disadvantages with the soil, digging in organic material-rotted manure, compost etc will immediately reap rewards, and as plants don`t come cheap-some of them anyway, why waste the money by not improving the soil?

I have clay soil-it looks like a duck pond on my lawn at times, and what do well in may garden ( I do improve the soil almost constantly working in compost but I am a bit of a mud nerd) are roses, pieris, skimmia, rhododendrons, camellias, I have a lovely clean bay laurel tree, euonymous, hydrangeas, astilbes, pittosporums, hebes, hornbeams-they`re new in last autumn and have taken off, two enormous oak trees ( that will take time), conifers-that`s what I can think off the top of my head for shrubs and trees. The flowers need a bit more help and a lot more compost but I have had success with peonies, daisies, campanulas, foxgloves, daffodils, tulips and irises. I have panted gladioli, acidantheras-in fact I would plant anything I wanted and give it what it needs. My herbs are in spent mushroom compost and gravel-about half and half of each and a handful of gravel at their base when I plant them.


There is nothing to stop you from having a gorgeous garden and clay can help, with additional drainage it isn`t a hindrance.


Good Luck

 

That's the key, clay is good as long as it drains ok. That's where the grit and the organic matter come into it.

 

We're on clay here too, but with lots of additional compost (we're lucky having chickens so their droppings mixed with their bedding goes onto the flower beds eventually) most plants will do fine in clay-those that need additional drainage benefit from grit when you're planting them.

 

Join the club. Clay soil is really alien to me I am used to sand and loam. I suppose anything will grow in clay so I am looking forward to the challenge. I will certainly be adding manure and compost reguaraly.

Oh I love a challenge.

 

Just keep reminding yourself its full of nutrients. Especially if we get a hot summer and the ground starts cracking:hehe:

 

Yea the challenge is to keep the soil Friable (No pun intended) throughout the year.

 

I'll add my vote to Raised Beds if you are planning to grow veg (and maybe flowers too, but I've not bothered with raised beds for flowers, personally.

 

for local advice try the old boys tending their gardens. Advice willbe worthwhile....you might even get some plants !!!

 

Roses love clay soil .

 

I had clay soil in my first house i mixed peat in with it where i wanted plants to grow and it did help it helped break down the clay I grew alpines and rockery plants and lots of shrubs. it was hard work and not the nicest soil ive ever worked with.

 

Hi Claire,

I was interested in your post here. I'm very much a new gardener. I also have a clay rich garden and I'm looking to grow herbs and maybe some veg. I was thinking about forming some raised beds using railway sleepers. I'd love to hear views on that, for instance, is that a good idea? Should I use old or new sleepers? What should I fill the raised beds with, soil wise?

Cheers,

Keith.

 

"is that a good idea"

Its better than that, its an excellent idea! Raised beds are definitely the best way of growing "crops", particularly on heavy soils.

It is best if you dig the soil (underneath the beds) well first. Double digging, incorporating lots of muck / compost. Its a one-time thing to provide a flying start. Then build up with some top soil, and put compost on top. Make you own compost (Councils usually offer subsidised plastic Dalex compost bins for about £20 - check using your postcode on the RecycleNow site) and add that on top each year. NEVER walk on the raised bed - so max 4' wide so you can reach from each side. See another post I made recently about styles of raised beds

Railway sleeper are quite wide, so they take up quite a lot of the overall area - assuming a 4' wide bed, and 2' paths between, the sleepers will be a foot wide each, so another 2' - so your 6' wide bed + path has become 8' with sleepers. So if you had a patch which was 24' wide you could get 4 beds with ordinary boards but only 3 beds with sleepers. But having said that they look nice, and it depends what effect you want to create.

Old sleepers treated with tar etc can be a problem - you get tar on you when you sit on them, and it leaches into the soil. You can put a barrier membrane between the sleepers and the soil in the bed which will keep the bad stuff out of the beds, but its still going to be in the soil nearby ... and old sleepers are got rid of usually because they are getting to the end of their life, so may rot sooner than you want. New ones would solve that problem, but will be more expensive.

 

Thanks Kristen, This was really usefull. I'll be back for more advice, armed with a photo of the intented plot. In the meantime I'll peruse the forum, see what I can pick up.