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Soil conditioning
seacrows
Posts: 234
I live in Cheshire, so the original soil is heavy clay. For the last 15 years our front garden has mostly been slate chippings on top of a weed-proof membrane. This has pretty much failed now as there is a flowering currant, plenty of wood sage and immense amounts of horsetail growing through it. I started weeding and removing the stones (half a tonne down, one to go) and lifted the membrane. The soil underneath is powder. I can lift a handful and pour it out, and none of it hits the ground but is blown away.
I thought it was just dry, so added water - wet powder. Put a couple of handfuls in a bucket of water - floating powder and slime at the bottom (like the slimes kids play with but not pink). My instinct is to put a deep mulch of compost/soil improver and leave it for a year, I would like to dig it over and mix the top six inches but I can't do that much digging.
OH has gone and bought a couple of bags of top soil, and thinks using this to make pockets of good soil to put plants in will let us plant this year. I can see his point, but won't this leave the powder soil to blow away?
Opinions, advice please.
I thought it was just dry, so added water - wet powder. Put a couple of handfuls in a bucket of water - floating powder and slime at the bottom (like the slimes kids play with but not pink). My instinct is to put a deep mulch of compost/soil improver and leave it for a year, I would like to dig it over and mix the top six inches but I can't do that much digging.
OH has gone and bought a couple of bags of top soil, and thinks using this to make pockets of good soil to put plants in will let us plant this year. I can see his point, but won't this leave the powder soil to blow away?
Opinions, advice please.
0
Posts
I think it best If H & W work as a team. Without some agreed plan, nothing will work. But this forum is garden guidance, not marriage guidance ...
Soil conditioning is like skin condiitioning: add a moisturiser; not evrryday, but at least one a year. Good topsoil is OK, but it is only topsoil, you need lots of vegetable matter. Have a look at what your local council is offering as composted garden waste. Start a compost heap.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Manure in particular - and if you can leave it till next spring to plant, it doesn't have to be well rotted stuff either. Lay it on and by autumn you'll see a huge improvement
Clay is the best growing medium there is, but don't look at short cuts. Adding soil is pointless.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
You can use well-rotted garden compost and/or well-rotted manure. There should be stables around that can provide themanure and some garden centres have it ready bagged - cheaper in some of the big DIY chains with garden bits. Your local council may also distribute compost form its won collection and composting centre.
Some info from RHS here-
https://www.rhs.org.uk/weeds/horsetail
Then look at improving your clay soil.
My front garden had very clay soil - mostly Essex clay both bright orange and grey, and impossible to work with. This RHS article pointed me in the right direction-
https://www.rhs.org.uk/soil-composts-mulches/clay-soils
I used 20 bags of composted bark fines and tried to incorporate it into the top of the soil - that was in late 2019. It was almost impossible to work it in so most of it stayed on the top.
After plenty of rain and winter frosts it started to get into the clay then I used another 20 bags around Feb 2020 which was a bit easier to work in.
By April the clay was beginning to break up.
Then I used about 12 bags of rotted manure to get some fibrous organic matter into the soil.
I took the plunge and planted it up and 3 years on the plants (12 pittosporum Golf Ball and 600 crocus) are growing nicely. The soil is still heavy, but far better than it was originally.
It will take time, but it can be done, and whilst your improving the clay, rain will penetrate and help it absorb more water.
You can assist this process by adding about about 0.5 T-spoon (no more) of detergent to a watering can full of water and just wet the top of the clay soil.
The detergent acts as a wetting agent that will allow water to penetrate further into the soil.
If you do this once every week or two it will help a lot.
Good luck!
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Regarding the horsetail, it's endemic to this area, every garden within a mile or so has it. Eradication is impossible, but a regular pulling up of any seen keeps it manageable. Besides the cat enjoys chewing it.