Clay

This year i have used my greenhouse, brought things out in containers and dug a thin L shaped bed in the front and a thicker bed out of a lawn in the back.

Front Bed is very clay like, there was a bed there before. and i went down a spadelength and hit a different, orange clay, i shook the turf and put it in upside down and broke the earth up after taking out 165 litres or so. This year i have put onions in and i'm hoping to put squashes in aswell. Planning to dig holes and fill with compost around the plants. Have also fed with growmore.

Backbed is for beans and sweetcorn this year, it is 36 inches across. I took off turf, found the ground hard and made harder by loads of roots that i think come from mature trees on neighbouring properties. Upside down turf in the bottom of the hole, lots of soil removed. Soil here is clay-ish but in much better condition than the front bed. Planning to compost spots where i plant.

Greenhouse has a tough floor that grows weeds well, next year i am thinking of trying to even it out a bit better and continue to grow in containers in there.

So i guess i am looking to improve thise two beds and a long flower bed that i will be giving over to my partner. Would like to do it cheaply, and i am guessing that next year, both beds would benefit from double digging.

I am bagging leaves to make leafmould, keeping my grass cuttings but don't have composting facilities... just a corner for my leafy things. If i can work out a way to get it here i am thinking of manuring both areas over winter.

Any ideas or advice would be welcome.

 

i also thought that i could use this years spent compost and growbags on the beds overwinter... tomato and potato on one plot and all other compost on the other.

 

You're doing all the right things. I have similar clay soil, only mine is studded with a million flints and stones that make it go like concrete during the dry weather. I had to use a pickaxe to break it up the first year after I moved in!

Rather than putting unwanted turf underground immediately, I made it into a stack, see http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/turf-stack-revisited-with-pictures-t26526.html?t=26526
The result was a very reasonable loam, the only downside was that it took a long time.

I also tried spreading calcified seaweed in the autumn because it was recommended as a soil improver. I can't honestly say I can attribute any specific improvement to it because I'm working the soil as best I can anyway. But I feel better having done it!

One thing you can be sure of, you'll never need to go to a gym if you've got clay in your garden!

Good luck.

 

Clay is normally rich in nutrients and fairly alkaline. Putting compost or composted garden waste into it will help to break down the stickyness. The only real problem is drainage, so a drainage plan is useful if you plan to stay there long term, otherwise it is not worth it. Drains would need to be below the depth you normally work to, draining out to a suitable ditch which is also below the level of the drains, they need to have gravel or shingle packed around them to allow the water through. It's an expensive job. Unless like my neighbour, you are a contractor in drainage or road works and have the equipment and opportunity to buy materials at the lowest price.

 

flinty, your turf-loam pile looks good, i have a little mound set aside, upside down and i'm hoping thats ready this time next year.

Larkshall, we are renting, probably for a couple of years. I want to improve it for ourselves economically so will probably sidestep the drains.

If we decide to stay here for a few years i am thinking of making a raised bed up on concrete next year if i need to expand growing area. I have learnt already that almost everything i take out of the garden can be stored and used later so i have kept clay to mix with compost if i get to make a bed

 

My garden is a clay mine.
I heard that if you buy composted bark and dig that into the soil it works. I gave it a try.
Bought about 6 bags of it. I have to say, my borders are perfect soil.

 

I have been fighting with clay soil for over twenty years. If you have no space for your own compost you could get spent mushroom compost which is dirt cheap if you have someone near you. Mix it with well rotted manure. If you can get some good top soil too to mix through,that will help a lot. I now have good deep surface soil but oh dear if you want plant deep. It takes me a pick to get the hole dug and I have found more blarney stones in my garden than I care to mention.

 

At this time of year when any rain seems to make little impact to the clay, the ground in my garden is cracking and rock hard. Forget trying to plant anything now - I try to get everything planted earlier in the year when the ground is softer, somewhere in between the ground being frozen and the ground being baked solid!!

The exceptions are the shady areas of the garden where the ground remains almost manageable to dig in. And of course, there are always pots...

 

I've been gardening heavy clay since 1980. Small gardens front and back, each about 30-foot square, with lawn and narrow and wide [some 4ft to 8ft] borders. Bought sand [it was low cost, but they no longer supply I'm told] from a local quarry. Weighed about a ton per load, brought back in a car trailer, forked it in around the borders. Got cheap peat by the car trailer from a local farmer and forked that in. I have 2 off 1-cubic-yard compost bins in constant use. Finally lost patience with the clay under the grass, so decided to re-make the front lawn. Bought 2 huge scoops of really well composted manure from the local farmer. He delivered it using a HUGE fork lift truck with the HUGE scoop fitted on the front, and dropped them in a heap on the [dug-over] front garden. Bought a ton of [red] sharp-concrete-sand from the local builders merchant. Spread the most coarse manure on the surface. Stood on boards as I dug in the manure, scattered the sand in amongst by hand from a bucket whilst digging with spade, and buried the turf in the bottom of the working trench. Rotovated it after a time to break up the lumps and mix in the sand and manure. Prepared the lawn and sowed grass seed last September. Now looking pretty good, but perhaps should have concentrated the sand/manure nearer the surface rather than in the whole top spit. The soil still feels rather hard under foot, and the grass grows greener at the edges [poor aeration?] Bit-by-bit, riddled the remaining manure [looked more like peat] into a wheelbarrow... Forked the fine stuff [like fine peat] into the borders, and stored the lumps [about 1 or 2 inches in size] in the compost bins. Used the lumps of black peat-like manure as a mulch on a particular border. That was only about 1-inch thick, but it's doing a good job. I disturb it as little as possible, but still need to fork out the odd weed. Have 2 off half bins full of these lumps available for use. The soil in all the other borders is SUPERB! 99% fine, crumbly, open, easy to fork, totally weed-free, rich, the plants love it, grow really healthy, and it's a joy to work. Always stand on boards as I fork it over. Easy to remove the few weeds and larger stones. Why doesn't this lot come out as typed?

 

I water my clay beds in the morning and in the evening, so it doesn't go rock hard during the heat of the day. Works as long as you're there to keep doing it!!