Yes, a word of caution. Some clay soil in anaerobic, that is to say solid, wet and dead. It is NOT full of nutrients that plants can take up and roses will die because they stand in water all winter. Have a good look at it, if it is a blueish colour, oozing with water and contains no organic material or visible living things such as worms or bugs you will need to improve it gradually with organic matter and grit. I get a bit cross with this 'clay is good' stuff, sometimes. There's clay and there's clay.
If your growing from seed, you could also take a bit of a Darwinian approach and just see what grows...
I have an area of garden that is thick clay on chalk, I grew some lupins from seed last year and had a few spare so just plonked a few in...they where fantastic they grew very large and put on a great display and have come back strongly this year.
I assumed they must be clay loving plants...but when I checked it said they hate clay and hate chalk! No one appears to have told my Lupins though and they seem quite happy!
So it might be worth just having a go and seeing what works it, might surprise you!
You can of course encounter the opposite effect, which is providing what should be perfect growing conditions, only to have plants sulk or die.
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!
I wouldn't suggest adding grit or coarse sand to stiff clay. To make the slightest difference you'll literally need tons. Even then you end up with stiff stoney clay instead of the intended clayey gravel. On top of that granular material in clay actually aids compaction. Clay soil can certainly be improved. It just takes time.
If you turn it over in the autumn, the winter frost will break up the clumps.
Chuck your mulch and used compost on the surface and leave it to The worms to do the work
The main factor is the weather. After heavy or continuous rain, the soil is beautifully workable for a few days. That's when you do your weeding. A few days of dry weather and it will be hard again.
Another important thing is to walk on it as little as possible. If you do walk on it loosen up the soil where you have trodden with a hand fork or whatever.
I definitely wouldn't add sand to a very heavy clay soil. It can end up like mortar.
A lot of my homemade compost is made using semi rotted autumn leaves and a lot of those fall on the shingle driveway. Consequently a small amount of 10mm pea shingle is collected up with the leaves and ends up in the compost and eventually in the soil - where it probably helps drainage a bit.
However, I have never deliberately added any grit, shingle etc to my soil - just lots and lots of organic matter. After 10 years the areas most worked and mulched have dark, friable soil to a depth of 12 inches.
Areas less worked (where there were existing trees) still have heavy soil which sets like concrete in the summer.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
Muck is best but coarse gritty material - some say sand and some grit, is really good too because the clay particles are so small and most good soil has some gritty material in it. It all depends on how poor your soil is. Worms won't do the work if there aren't any worms and, while frost breaks up clay, a wet Spring reforms it and sun bakes it solid again. It needs work and can be made into excellent material but it won't happen by just chucking on a bit of compost.
I suppose it depends on many factors. It worked for me but it was not a quick process. It still gets baked in some parts of the garden with crevices opening up in the less cultivated areas but that's clay for you.
I’m like you and planted without knowing my soil type.
The plants that have done well in my clay soil are red hot poker, hydrangea and surprisingly lupins. as someone said about about alkaline soil, stay clear of camellias etc - I almost killed mine when I planted it. It’s now in a pot and doing better.
Inglezinho is right that you can't 'change' your basic soil type, e.g. changing clay to a free draining sandy soil. But yes you can improve it to grow a wider range of things, and improve the soil texture generally, mainly by adding organic matter over time.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
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I get a bit cross with this 'clay is good' stuff, sometimes. There's clay and there's clay.
I have an area of garden that is thick clay on chalk, I grew some lupins from seed last year and had a few spare so just plonked a few in...they where fantastic they grew very large and put on a great display and have come back strongly this year.
I assumed they must be clay loving plants...but when I checked it said they hate clay and hate chalk! No one appears to have told my Lupins though and they seem quite happy!
So it might be worth just having a go and seeing what works it, might surprise you!
You can of course encounter the opposite effect, which is providing what should be perfect growing conditions, only to have plants sulk or die.
Chuck your mulch and used compost on the surface and leave it to The worms to do the work
The main factor is the weather. After heavy or continuous rain, the soil is beautifully workable for a few days. That's when you do your weeding. A few days of dry weather and it will be hard again.
Another important thing is to walk on it as little as possible. If you do walk on it loosen up the soil where you have trodden with a hand fork or whatever.
A lot of my homemade compost is made using semi rotted autumn leaves and a lot of those fall on the shingle driveway. Consequently a small amount of 10mm pea shingle is collected up with the leaves and ends up in the compost and eventually in the soil - where it probably helps drainage a bit.
However, I have never deliberately added any grit, shingle etc to my soil - just lots and lots of organic matter. After 10 years the areas most worked and mulched have dark, friable soil to a depth of 12 inches.
Areas less worked (where there were existing trees) still have heavy soil which sets like concrete in the summer.
The plants that have done well in my clay soil are red hot poker, hydrangea and surprisingly lupins.
as someone said about about alkaline soil, stay clear of camellias etc - I almost killed mine when I planted it. It’s now in a pot and doing better.
good luck