too wet/ too dry clay soil
Heidi Osborne
Posts: 1
Hi there,
This is the first time I've ever posted on a gardening forum, mainly because I'm new to gardening and have had to rely on internet advice - but have fallen foul to contradictory advice about dealing with heavy clay soil...so I'm hoping someone can help?
We have a new-build house that is 6 years old. The garden was a turfed 'blank canvas' when we moved in, until the grass died due to water logging and we realised the turf covered a big problem. We dug up the turf (plus some interesting builders bits!) and had a patio and raised beds built (which look nice) but we want some lawn and borders. Instead we have a boggy mess of heavy clay, made worse by a neighbour adding drainage ditches under her lawn..
I took to the internet - sharp sand and organic matter was recommended. The problem being, when to add it. Lots of people said, wait until the soil is dry. This takes until well into late summer for our garden by which time it's cracked and so hard we can't get a spade in it, we had to use a pick axe as it is. Digging it dry is not an option, by this time the surface is concrete.
When it's wet, we can mix stuff in, so hired a rotavator last weekend and mixed in bags of sharp sand and manure. Now I read that's a cardinal sin with clay soil, to work it wet because it apparently makes it worse. We can't win - ours is never 'just right' to dig (too wet or too dry)
We really need to sow grass seed and plant borders but still have a bog for a back garden that we need to dry out. Any advice welcome!
Posts
Soaking wet soil is not a good time.
You won't get a lawn this year and start on that basis. If you try you'll be throwing your money away. You've started properly and the only way to improve things is to continue adding as much manure as you can over the summer and into the Autumn and winter. By next spring you'll probably find you have a half decent bit of topsoil. Add top dressings of grit as well and let nature do the work for you. It's a lot easier than doing it manually and your backs will last a lot longer as well. By next spring you'll find things are very different and as long as your neighbours drains don't drain into your garden you could probably think about sowing seed or turfing. I know it sounds dismal for this year, but unless you have very deep pockets there's no quick solution. Gardening on clay and compacted clay is about hard work and patience. So do it right in the first place and the results will last, rush it and you'll regret it.
Don't dig sand into the clay if the clay is going to dry out, it'll set like cement. Plenty of organic material and fine grit dug in should do it.
Are you saying your neighbour's garden drains onto yours? I suspect that is a no no, not sure, and getting it fixed would be hard. They should have had soakaways built, draining onto your land might be violating some regs, or laws even.
What you are doing is right, if the soil was workable and not water logged. Try levelling, glyphosate weeds, and watch what happens when it rains. If it drains, sow seed in autumn, and you'll have a lawn by next spring. If it turns into a bog garden, your neighbour might be the problem.
lay a mix of well rotted manure and horticultural grit on the surface as deep as you can and let the worms in the manure drag it down, if you've got heavy clay top dressing is probably your only option for now.