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My clay soil is super heavy
s.moulding
Posts: 6
Hello,
im hoping someone might be able to help me. I quite a newbie to gardening with a very tiny budget.
This year I have been growing all of our plants from seed with the hope that In a few years we can see the rewards! However through lack of knowledge I didn’t think about my soil 🙈 most of the plants I have been growing say fertile well drained soil. I’m pretty sure I’ve ticked the fertile box.... however definitely not free draining!! The clay is super heavy where we live and you can literally lift whole clumps of clay. Is there any way I can easily change this (with out paying too much 😬😬😬).
thank you in advance!
im hoping someone might be able to help me. I quite a newbie to gardening with a very tiny budget.
This year I have been growing all of our plants from seed with the hope that In a few years we can see the rewards! However through lack of knowledge I didn’t think about my soil 🙈 most of the plants I have been growing say fertile well drained soil. I’m pretty sure I’ve ticked the fertile box.... however definitely not free draining!! The clay is super heavy where we live and you can literally lift whole clumps of clay. Is there any way I can easily change this (with out paying too much 😬😬😬).
thank you in advance!
0
Posts
Some plants like roses and many others are more than happy in clay soil.
When it comes to planting out your seedlings, just add a couple of inches of some garden compost or cheap multi-purpose compost to the area and fork it in lightly. Water your seedlings well before and after planting and keep an eye for slugs and snails.
Last spring, I also added a few perennials and biennials into the meadow like foxgloves, erodium manescavii, lupins and eryngium Miss Marbel which all seemed to thrive and I already have signs of them coming back. These were planted about a year after we cleared the turf and sowed our meadow and as @Obelixx suggests above, we did work some compost and grit into each planting hole for these plants. We did run risk of developing a 'sump' (I think that's what it's called) - basically a hole that fills up with water but doesn't drain anywhere meaning roots just sit in a puddle. But this doesn't seem to have caused me much trouble...yet! For non-meadow areas we planted sunflowers and honeysuckle into the clay soil mixed with multi-purpose compost. They too did absolutely fine.
This year I plan to try growing some annuals from seed and inter-planting them too; I've got cosmos, California poppies and nigella. I also have some hardy geraniums to plant out.
I don't know what plants you're planning to grow but I guess my point is, although there are some clear guidance on what grows best where, you just have to try and test your own garden and see what works. Although some plants prefer/thrive better in clay, some less obvious ones might do fine too.
Best of luck!
Just one word of warning: clay soils have a tendency to be alkaline and poorly-drained, which means they are not suitable for ericaceous plants , heather, rhododendon, camellia etc. RHS do not make this very clear. Double check. When you buy plants go to a good nurseryman. Not Walmart. They can often give you invaluable advice ie. how much sun does it need?
Another tip for a quick fix when planting is to add some (lime-free) grit or gravel. This will improve the drainage without a lot of work! Good luck!
Sorry, but I totally disagree with most of that @Inglezinho. Heavy clay soil needs to be improved, or it will be very difficult to cultivate anything. It is best done by regular addition of organic matter.
Clay is as likely to be acidic, as it is alkaline.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
The best (free) thing you can do with clay soil is to work it (ie dig it). That at least breaks great lumps down into smaller ones. The best (probably not free) thing you can incorporate is quite bulky organic matter.
I use a lot of homemade garden compost and use it while it's still very coarse (ie before it's completely broken down to that lovely crumbly texture). I also use a lot of well rotted farmyard manure and spent mushroom compost but have to pay for it.
If you have friends with horses or who farm livestock bake them a cake and beg for horse muck, cow muck etc. It should be well rotted before you use it but many stables have a pile that's been standing around a while.