Soil Conditioning Advice please

I decided my awful soil was the cause of dismal results the past couple years. Added to which I'd put drought tolerant and thirsty plants side by side....DOH!! I looked for a local gardener to come and lift my plants and dig in manure as due to my current health issues wouldnt manage it on my own. Stumbled across a man purporting to be RHS trained with 35ys experience. He came. He assessed. He recommended. He quoted.
He Canelled.
Rude words rude words rude words. Id foolishly rescheduled my MRI to accommodate him. That's how important my garden is to me. Stupid of me.
I now have bags of manure and tubs of chicken manure pellets. I also have a tub of fish blood bone for mixing in around roots when plants go back in.
I've got a young lad coming to do the digging but I'm a bit unsure of order of works.
Dig ground over removing large lumps clay. Then what order for manure and pellets?? Or do I just chuck it all in together. Im feeling quite overwhelmed. Any advice gratefully accepted.⁸

 

Very sorry to hear you have health issues...
I would wait till late October to lift the established plants.
They'll be more dormant and won't appreciate an early kick off.
I'd mix the chicken pellets with the manure and double dig that well in, to two spade depths if possible.
I like to mix it a bit with exsisting soil at the deeper level so that plant roots get a gradual transition rather than a sudden 'wall of clay'
The b'f'bone can be top dressed around the planting areas before the plants go back in.
It needs to be raked in so that the smell doesn't attract rodents or pets.
Hope you get back to good health soon

 

Hi,

Not sure what your actual soil problem is or if its been discussed in another thread ?
Some details and pics of the site might help us all see what the problem is ?

Without knowing those facts, think the last thing we would do is lift all the plant and double dig just to add in some manure and fertilizer.
As often said, just laying it on top of the soil or lightly folked in, it will soon be drawn down into the soil by the worms.

MRI scan delayed, have to say it always amazes us how many folk do not attend the scheduled date, be they want to get off on holiday or what ever, is there anything more important than ones health ?

 

I believe 'lumps of clay' were mentioned?!

 

Thank you for the advice. I really appreciate it. Not sure it'll be possible to dig 2 spades deep as it will be too solid and totally impenetrable. It is absolute solid compacted clay topped with lumps of stone dotted clay intermingled with really dry dusty soil on top. No amount of watering seemed to help. Unfortunately I have already lifted a lot of my plants on advice of the RHS (con man) gardener. They are sitting in pots and im keeping them watered. Ive cut them back too. Mostly Phlox and Delphiniums and Penstemons amongst a few others. To be fair they were all half dead anyway so its a game of rescue and hope for the best now. I got so few flowers and a lot of lower brown leaves. I had a layer of manure put on the top (too thin) last autumn and it just seemed to dry out with very little going down into the soil hence why I want it dug in now. I will do as you've advised as closely as possible. As far as health goes ive kinda given up and just wanna do what I can to be happy right now.

 

If it's that compacted I'd ask your digger if he can get hold of a mattock.
Or at least a good garden fork!
Although effort will need to be made, the borders will give much better results for you in the future.
I employed a polish guy to hand dig my patio area, and i couldn't believe how fast he removed a skip full of hard sub soil.
(He was in his twentys..)
But as mentioned clay will always improve with compost and manure whichever route you choose.
Being a bloke i like to get that darned clay OUT! and give my plants a good healthy root run.

 

If it's clay then you don't need blood, fish and bone. What you need is organic matter, and lots of it. Well rotted horse manure, composted leaf mulch, composted wood chips, peat if you don't feel guilty about using it, any kind of peat substitute like coir otherwise. Any or all of that, as much as you can get.

You need it well dug in, ideally double dug with organic matter in both layers, so that you break up all the hard pan clay and get stuff in there which will absorb water. By all means add other fertilisers too if you've already got them, but they're really not so important.

And you need it done before autumn gets too far on. The idea is to get your organic stuff in the ground before the frosts start, so that the freeze-thaw cycle breaks up the clay over winter. Ideally too it'd be nice to get it done before autumn gets too rainy, because digging through and walking on waterlogged soil is not the way to build good soil structure, and it's no fun doing your digging in the rain anyway, but this isn't the biggest problem compared to what you're starting with.

I've been there and done that on previous gardens. It's no-one's idea of a good time, doing that kind of digging, but it's necessary.

 

Agree with Graham, now that we've established that most of the plants have already been lifted, the work can proceed as soon as convenient.

 

And now the second gardener I found has cancelled today. it seems nobody wants to take my money. My precious very old but very clean car is siting outside full of bags of manure (sealed but still damp and smelly) that Im unable to lift out. The kind man at the garden centre loaded it for me and I worked on the assumption there would be somebody here to unload it today. Will start looking for another gardener today. Im truly losing the will to live.

 

If i lived in your county i would volunteer for the job myself.
Rather than google search for 'landscape gardeners'
I would search for a garden handyman and look at the reviews.
Also ask for recommendations from local neighbours and facebook contacts.

 

Hi,

Dealing with such bad clay ground is always going to be problematic.

Perhaps looking at alternatives is the answer ..?

The real solution to having some borders is to have all the clay dug out and replaced with good soil, a big and expensive job, but will give you what you want.
Again not sure what size area you are talking about ?
Have seen TV programs where folk have dug down meters and the whole garden replaced, a mammoth task !

The other alternative, and probably the better one in our view, is to forget about the clay and grow everything in pots or raised beds.
Again its a method used by many, as seen on tv programs like Gardners World, who have very big and lush plants all growing in pots.
The only downside is the regular watering, but lots of simple irrigation systems around.

 

Clay is perfectly recoverable. My first garden hadn't had a spot of work in the 30 years since the house was built, and it was solid white sterile clay, apart from the bits which were either stinking hard pan or bricks. At least that one was a small area - at my second house, that garden was 30m by 10m, and half of that was outbuildings and hard standing which made the compaction underneath even worse. I left both gardens with beautiful soil. I didn't need to replace the soil, just improve what was there.

But clay does need breaking up, and thereafter the best way to keep it broken up is organic stuff.

 

No arguments with any of that but breaking up is hard to do..
I think there's a song about that..
Anyways, plant assassin has got the organic matter and no doubt a good garden fork.
All she needs now is someone to turn up and get stuck in.

 

I have to say. I really do feel for our friend. I have no idea asto her age or health conditions. Nevertheless generally speaking, I would not care to stand by and see a woman take on such a task.
If I may. So much of todays gardening has been made so much easier. OK TV gardening programs make digging look so easy. I remember my early years, illegitimate child trenching, double digging, even on non clay soils, it was enough to break the back of a Royal Marine Commando.

In general most of our common garden plant require around 12-18 inches of depth. Even if a bit short on depth here and there, once the supporting fibrous roots take hold, it's amazing the strength in roots. If they can grow through concrete, why worry about clay.

Back to our friend. An alternative is to dig in between the established plant and overincorporate fresh compost. If you perhaps prefer to lift the plants, add the compost and basically replant, OK. A now common practice is to turn beds and borders into raised ones.

What really rubs me up the wrong way is, the pretenders. Fair do's, some things are begining to become hard for me. I'd much prefer a chap, or lass to say. Mike, I know nothing about gatdening but, if you tell me what to do. I'd love to help you.

I remember the mid-late 80's. Big slump in jobs and so to speak, every bloke was going around with a mower in tow, purporting to be a gardener.

Take things steady and sincere best wishes.

 

Thank you so much everybody. In the continuing saga. Second "gardener" text at 5.30am on his booked day to say "not coming sorry about that" I despair I really do. Trouble is ive started so ill have to finish now. Found a website called mybuilder where you post jobs and tradesmen quote. Got somebody coming Monday (I won't hold my breath) for an extortionate about of money. If they don't turn up ive got a problem. There are many sacks of manure sitting in my car that I can't unload ha ha. I hope they're not leaking! I can almost smell it from here! My poor pretty, lovely, clean car.
I'm not young enough, well enough or indeed fit enough due to ill health to do it myself or I would. Although I've lived here for years (20) I'm a tenant not the owner so only so much expense can be justified even if I had the money which I dont anymore. Id love to have raised beds but the cost involved scuppers that. I think there are lots of people on furlough at present purporting to be 'gardeners' amongst other things all looking for cash work. My faith in human nature continues to be eroded. Fingers crossed for Monday and i look forward to beans on toast till Xmas ha ha.