CLAY SOIL

We have a garden on clay and it is not too difficult to grow most plants - especially cottage garden types. As the others have said, don't worry too much about the lawn and just wait to see how it does once this wet weahter is over.

With the border it depends on how close to the surface the clay is. Do you have much topsoil on it? Enfield gardens usually have about 4-6 inches of topsoil. If you have that amount then you don't really want to dig the clay up and bury the existing topsoil whilst doing it. As Daitheplant says - clay has more nutrients so it can be helpful. Spread compost and manure on the surface and fork it over lightly. When you put a plant in the ground carefully dig a fairly large hole for it so that you can break up the clay in the bottom of it. Mix soil and compost with the clay in the bottom, put your plant in and fill the hole with topsoil and compost. The plant should be quite happy with this.

If you want to grow veggies then you need a different approach for them as you will need to improve the ground in bulk instead of piecemeal. Then double-digging is the better solution which will alow you to keep your topsoil on top whilst being able to improve the consistency of the clay by incorporating straw and compost. I won't go into the detail of double-digging at the moment because you may not be wanting to grow veggies.

Good luck :thmb: