Brand new garden - help!
earlycraig
Posts: 1
Hi folks, hoping you can help! Just moved in to a new home with a garden that consists of rotavated heavy soil. We're lucky that the garden slopes gently away from the house onto a steeper slope so should drain very well, but the soil seems to be a very very heavy clay based type.
Early attempts at digging out drainage pits resulted in sore backs, clay casts of our wellies, and some damaged soil. Guessing this wasn't the right way to start?!
We're not looking for anything particularly fancy, just some borders with a mix of veg and flowers in future years, and a central lawn area as soon as possible. My research seems to suggest that I should dig sharp sand into the surface, along with some material such as decomposed bark?
Any tips will be really appreciated, I don't know where to start searching for suggestions.
Thanks!
Posts
Here is the RHS advice on heavy clay soil.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=620
I've had to garden on clay more than once and it is difficult at times (sinking into the lawn in winter, hitting orange clay one spit down in the veg garden) so the RHS suggestion about raised beds makes perfect sense because you won't be fighting puddles and bad drainage all the time.
one of my beds is heavy clay (my husband bought it home from a job to fill the bed) anyway it was a nightmare but i have dug lots and lots of builders sharp sand in (not normal sand) but the gritty stuff & lots of manure, go to a stables or look in friday ad for someone offering free manure and dig in as much as possible. It is hard work but once it is done it is done, i used a fork, spade to turn it over initially and dug down as far as i could, then as i turnedit i added the sharp sand and manure and used a hoe to break it up and get rid of any lumps of clay. Its is really easy to dig/plant now and all my plants seem happy. I have a dwarf cherry tree, bramley apple, sennetti, two different clematis, a crimson cascade climber rose and other plants & bulbs and they are all growing well. good luck
Hi Early,
just of to bed as very late 4 me.
I wouldnt worry about the Clay, if you can dig it all over well AND stick in some compost + heavy duty manure, you should be okay.
Im a bit new to this as well but, i take advice from forum then, its a trial and error, then report back lol.
Tended to go with the flow and after treating my "Heavy Clay soil" with compost and manure, i now have all sorts growing, perfectly well, ie: mangetout/sweetcorn/tomatoes/radish/broccoli...(picked today for dinner, Broc that is). Tons of salad and everything else is sprouting.
Will pot out my cucumbers and Red peppers tomorrow...
best of luck.
Clarice and sanjy are right - loads of manure and rough grit and be prepared to wait for it to start lightening up the soil. If you can concentrate on one area at a time and get that in good order you can then plant it up. If you want to construct a few raised beds for your veg for this year that would be a good idea. Over winter get hold of some well rotted manure - in bags if you don't have access to a stables or farm near you - and lay it on the surface for worms to take down into the ground, and next spring it will all be easier.
I know you'll want to crack on and do something but it's worth making the effort as it saves a lot of work in the long run. I've always gardened on clay so I know all the problems, but clay is a wonderful medium once you get the drainage right.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
p.s on the plus side you can dig some out and wash it and build yourself a nice pizza/bread oven for the garden
i was going to do one but ive run out of room now, loads on youtube/pinterest if your the handy sort.
I have heavy clay soil. Water used to puddle on the lawn after rain. I killed the lawn spread one inch sharp sand, rotavated and reseeded. The result is much better, with no puddling. In the beds I pile on compost, and after a few years they do very well indeed. Some were dug first to remove perennial weeds that glyphosate did not kill. I do not walk on the beds, and I start sensitive crops such as beans and sweetcorn in modules, since my soil is cold. When you spread compost you will be surprised how rapidly worms drag it down, after a few years it will be transformed. I don't think you need raised beds, but they look nice, mark out beds clearly, and will get you going a bit quicker. If you go for raised beds, it is easy to make them, no need to buy kits.