Excuse my ignorance but is it possible to create a ‘raised bed’ on top of my clay soil? Can I get lots of top soil and add on top and dig in compost - hence raise the level of the soil.
The level of the soil in parts of the garden are quite low and can easily be raised by 20cm or so.
Nothing wrong with bagged compost, it's just going to end up very expensive for the volume you will need.
I also have heavy, impacted clay and I add plenty of loose organic material every year, plus coarse gravel at the start when I began my garden. I always find that if you 'lean in' to your garden's conditions you will have a lot more fun and your plants will be happier
There are some sites for plants where the garden owners have similar conditions and so they specialise in things that will survive there--it is even worth asking for advice. Try Beth Chatto's and Cotswold Garden Flowers. I also have a very small garden, and I have plenty of colour all year, though it's taken quite a while to work out what will thrive as I also have shade, pests, and very alkaline soil, coupled with walls which cast rain shadows in places.
Thank you and I agree! I intend to work with what I have too.
with regards to the expense of bagged compost, when I looked into it, it seemed cheaper to buy the bagged compost. I bought 200 litres for £10 (see photo) from Homebase which seemed cheaper than the bulk order compost.
Perhaps I haven’t researched it enough so I will into it again.
Heavy clay soil here too. Moved in two years ago and only started the garden last summer after the building work was no longer wrecking the garden.
I threw everything at it: top soil, soil improver, sand, manure and compost. Literally tons of it all, turning the ground over and over again. And it has worked. The plants (trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs) I planted last summer are all thriving (except for one or two finicky clematis and a daphne that understandably objected to being moved twice).
That being said, I pay attention to the plants I choose (must like clay and slightly acidic soil). In some cases, lily bulbs for example, I add grit at the bottom of the hole for better drainage.
PS: the compost I used was bagged compost, having access to nothing else. Can't see any ill effect.
Great thank you! This all gives me some hope that the rest of my plants won’t suffer the same fate as the lavenders and rosemary
btw: did you turn and dig it manually or with a machine? I intend to do it manually given its a small plot.
All by hand. Just mind your wrists and don't forget to use gloves!
For some reason I had one patch that was worse than the others because the top layer was just dust and full of rubbish (the amount of chicken bones, plastics, broken tiles, metal bits), I think I turned that one 4 times over until it finally looked ready for planting.
Soil improver is fine, what you don't want is multipurpose potting compost. That is meant for seed-sowing and potting on, not spreading on the soil. It won't do any harm it just isn't as good as muck, which is cheaper, too. When we moved here we had solid clay, no life, no top soil. I have dug in untold loads of muck, garden compost and grit, broken up the base with picks and forks. It works! My soil is great now. But I had to learn as I went along. You can, of course, build raised beds if you want to and I use mound planting because the water table is very high.
Nothing wrong with bagged compost imo either and anything you can get hold of and add is to the good. I didn’t have a compost heap to start with, but worth starting one if you have the space. Composted manure won’t burn your plants, only fresh. Most beds end up raised here, because of the huge quantities of organic material I have added (no it wasn’t cheap process!) but it needed it because I had limited planting depth. It does mean I can grow a slightly wider range of plants, for example, achillea, salvia and agastache do fine in the general beds in-between the clay tolerant plants.
Yes you can make a raised bed on clay, mine are 😊. It helps if you dig over the base first and add a layer of gravel under the timber or whatever material you make them from. Some ‘weep’ holes drilled into the bottom of the beds also help to disperse excess moisture so the roots of the plants aren’t sitting in a soggy bottom over winter. Otherwise it’s like a very large pot with no drainage holes.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
If it helps, I dig-in one 50l bag of bagged manure per square metre when improving uncultivated or 'tired' clay soil. It does raise the soil level a fair bit initially, but soon settles, then I use more bagged composted manure as a mulch every autumn. Nearly all of my beds and borders are raised, some just by 15cm, some double that. It really helps if you have clay and a naturally high water-table. As others have said, you do need to select your plants a bit more carefully than on more free-draining soils. 'Mediterranean' plants like rosemary, thyme etc. all hate soggy roots and I have to grow those in the highest of the raised areas or in containers where I'm more in control of the water.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
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The level of the soil in parts of the garden are quite low and can easily be raised by 20cm or so.
I also have heavy, impacted clay and I add plenty of loose organic material every year, plus coarse gravel at the start when I began my garden. I always find that if you 'lean in' to your garden's conditions you will have a lot more fun and your plants will be happier
There are some sites for plants where the garden owners have similar conditions and so they specialise in things that will survive there--it is even worth asking for advice. Try Beth Chatto's and Cotswold Garden Flowers. I also have a very small garden, and I have plenty of colour all year, though it's taken quite a while to work out what will thrive as I also have shade, pests, and very alkaline soil, coupled with walls which cast rain shadows in places.
with regards to the expense of bagged compost, when I looked into it, it seemed cheaper to buy the bagged compost. I bought 200 litres for £10 (see photo) from Homebase which seemed cheaper than the bulk order compost.
I threw everything at it: top soil, soil improver, sand, manure and compost. Literally tons of it all, turning the ground over and over again. And it has worked. The plants (trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs) I planted last summer are all thriving (except for one or two finicky clematis and a daphne that understandably objected to being moved twice).
That being said, I pay attention to the plants I choose (must like clay and slightly acidic soil). In some cases, lily bulbs for example, I add grit at the bottom of the hole for better drainage.
PS: the compost I used was bagged compost, having access to nothing else. Can't see any ill effect.
btw: did you turn and dig it manually or with a machine? I intend to do it manually given its a small plot.
For some reason I had one patch that was worse than the others because the top layer was just dust and full of rubbish (the amount of chicken bones, plastics, broken tiles, metal bits), I think I turned that one 4 times over until it finally looked ready for planting.
Yes you can make a raised bed on clay, mine are 😊. It helps if you dig over the base first and add a layer of gravel under the timber or whatever material you make them from. Some ‘weep’ holes drilled into the bottom of the beds also help to disperse excess moisture so the roots of the plants aren’t sitting in a soggy bottom over winter. Otherwise it’s like a very large pot with no drainage holes.