Clay

Anybody had success with heavy clay soil? Are raised beds the best solution? Leucojum.

 

Assuming it is red clay and not blue. I would say try and work with it, clay has more nutrients that any other soil, you just need to work it. Dig it over so that the frosts can break it down for you. Add humus to it to open it up. Walk on it as little as possible, so that you don`t compact it again. Encourage the earthworms, they will take any garden compost or well rotted manure, into the soil and save you work. Fill it with veg and enjoy.

 

At the moment I'm working with very heavy clay in my garden. Fortunately the worms seem to like it, for there are tons of them! I've made one raised bed for vegetables, but I'm going to try to break a second garden patch, by planting potatoes and digging lots of compost/manure/organic stuff. At the moment I'm just going to try working with it. I dug a long rose bed a few months ago, before I put bare root roses in and they seem to love where they are. It doesn't seem all that bad. Until you have to walk on the lawn... then it's just mucky.

 

Sinta, a common misconception people have, is that planting potatoes improves the soil. This is rot. What improves the soil is your digging, and, as the potaoes grow, your earthing up. Don`t thank the spuds for you improved soil, thank your hard work. :D

 

The trouble with heavy clay soils is you have to keep adding compost/manure and digging it in. If you walk on it you compact it. In pockets or low ground water just lays. Give it some sun, it cracks, shrinks and goes rock hard. Yes you can mulch it, compost it, grit it, dig it and still end up with clay soil. It's perpetual. Even after doing all this you are limited to what you can grow. So, are raised beds the way to go? Leucojum

 

I have heavy clay, where the water just used to sit in winter. But I have had a lot of success with improving it. This link http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=000134 shows what I did recently to my front garden.

I was inspired to do that by having done a similar thing in my back garden, but spread out over a longer period of time. Even in the summer, when it used to be baked solid, I can now run my fingers through it. It has improved it amazingly. But its a lot of work and you need to keep adding organic matter to continually the process.

 

And if you mulch in summer, as we all should, then that makes the job easier.

 

Yup, as I said, hard work. What about raised beds then? Leucojum

 

If you love gardening, then it is not hard work. It only becomes hard work when you don`t know when to stop, when you think you have to do it. Before that happens you should have a break. There`s always tomorrow.

 

Well, it looks like you would rather know what people think of raised beds. Of course they will make it easier. Just more costly and sometimes they just don't fit the garden design.

Is it the easiest solution? Yes.

Is it the best solution? Not in my opinion, especially if want a lawn.

 

Thanks for pointing that out! I always wondered why people thought potatoes seemed to be able to improve the soil. It makes more sense now

 

Of course, if you like chips.

 

If the soil under the raised bed doesn't drain properly, then even the benefits of a raised bed are reduced. I agree with Sinta, raised beds don't always fit well into a design, unless you are just talking of a vegetable garden.

I have edged my own borders with log roll, and having added gravel, sand, manure and compost, it has raised the level of the beds by a small amount. But that was incidental.

 

I agree Peter, anyone installing deep beds should always fork over the bottom of the bed before topping up with the new soil.

 

Another possibility is to add calcium in the form of gypsum, not lime. Gypsum dosent affect the ph as much as lime. Probably would'nt be able to grow lime hating plants though. I don't mind digging, doulbe digging, digging in grit, compost or manure. But not only is it hard work it takes time. And time, my friends, I aint got a lot of just now. With raised beds you only need go about 15cm (6inches) high as a minimum, would probably go higher though, and of course prepare the clay before filling the raised bed. As for a lawn I'll forget that for now, just aint got the time. Leucojum