Clay soil is great when it's been worked and improved over several years. We are at the beginning of that journey and have had truck loads of organic matter added to the soil.
Most of it is now workable for most of the year and will get better with time - but there are some patches where I cannot get a fork into the ground in summer and in winter I slip and slide around and lift great chunks of grey and yellow clay.
It's where the original house for this site stood so has been incredibly compacted over many years. I'm amazed anything grows there - but it does - but there are only about 6 weeks of the year when I can cultivate it using a border fork and I can never use hand tools. This area might be very workable in about 20 yrs - but not by me I think.
Have also gardened on very sandy soil. Very easy to dig but all that watering.....
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
Nearly all of the gardens I work in are on clay. Yes it can be difficult to work, but the plants you can grow in clay outstrip the ones you can grow on very well drained soil. Hard work, but very worth the effort.
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Clay soil is great when it's been worked and improved over several years. We are at the beginning of that journey and have had truck loads of organic matter added to the soil.
Most of it is now workable for most of the year and will get better with time - but there are some patches where I cannot get a fork into the ground in summer and in winter I slip and slide around and lift great chunks of grey and yellow clay.
It's where the original house for this site stood so has been incredibly compacted over many years. I'm amazed anything grows there - but it does - but there are only about 6 weeks of the year when I can cultivate it using a border fork and I can never use hand tools. This area might be very workable in about 20 yrs - but not by me I think.
Have also gardened on very sandy soil. Very easy to dig but all that watering.....
Nearly all of the gardens I work in are on clay. Yes it can be difficult to work, but the plants you can grow in clay outstrip the ones you can grow on very well drained soil. Hard work, but very worth the effort.
Im with you Dave