Adding grit to flowerbeds
Lucid
Posts: 387
Hi everyone,
We're in the process of re-doing our garden - we're currently back to a completely blank canvas. We're going to have a couple of flowerbeds on either side of the garden and I'm trying to determine whether, due to us having clay soil, we should add grit and dig it in.
I was planning to double dig the beds and we've got 1.5 bulk bags of homemade compost ready to be worked in, plus a few other bags of compost and well rotted manure. I know that drainage can be an issue with clay soil, and I've seen it advised a few times (on Gardeners' World) and in a couple of books I've been reading that grit should be dug in to clay soil.
What I'm not sure on is how deep and how much? For example if I am double digging should I work the grit in to the lower layer, and then for the upper layer just work in compost and manure? On one Gardeners' World episode for planting a hedge of lavenders, Monty Don layered some rubble at the bottom, then grit and then the compost and top soil, rather than mixing it all in - I think. Is this considered a better approach?
I figure if we're starting from scratch we may as well try to get everything prepared as well as possible, so if it's better to add grit I'd rather get a load delivered.
Thanks for any help and advice,
Lucid 
Posts
I have gardened on clay soil for years and years. This year we made a Mediterranean style garden and incorporated masses of sharp sand (similar to grit and does the same job) and I have to say it is soooooooo much easier to work than clay. The soil just falls apart when you dig it or weed it. And I can now grow all these wonderful things that would struggle on clay like lavender, alliums, euphorbia, scabius and more. We also incorporated lots of FYM. We dug the sharp sand and FYM down to about a foot and added more on top too. Here's a picture:
I've always gardened on clay Lucid, and I'm a great fan of digging in copious amounts of grit. I just do it as I go along - mixing it in with the soil/compost when I put in a plant. Over time, the soil becomes very workable. Manure is probably the best conditioner for heavy soil though, but if you want to put in plants which like sharp drainage, it's well worth doing
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Agree with those 2 comments, I have clay soil too.
I watched the Monty Don video that you're talking about and so I was layering the rubble grit soil etc his way but you might find that it all ends up pretty mixed up anyway after a while with you digging and raking about so, my advice is in my opinion don't waste your time carefully layering the substances
Thanks for the replies and tips everyone. I think a lot of the plants I have in mind say they like well-drained soil so that's why I wanted to check what was best. I also want to be covered for plants like lavender too.
Lucid
Hi everyone,
If I have excess sharp sand/grit after planting, can I add it to the top of soil before mulching in the hope that it'll eventually be worked down in to the flowerbed by earthworms etc?
Lucid
Some hard landscaping in our garden brought a lot of yellow sticky clay to the surface. Spent compost and sharp sand sorted the structure .own compost and fertilizer sorted fertility.worms did most of the hard work. As a lazy gardener, I agree with improving the soil as you go rather than trying to do it all at once. There are plenty of annual / biennial plants to grow on the unimproved bits until you get round to them.
I once read an article about clay soil ( we've got it too ) which suggested in summer if the ground cracks in dry weather( esp on lawns ) pour grit into the cracks . Sounds like a simple yet highly effective way of improving drainage.
I'm not suggesting anyone lets their flower beds/borders get that dry though.
We also have heavy clay soil and I agree with all the comments. The garden was all lawn when we moved in, and when we created flower beds, we simply dug in copious amounts of grit, farmyard manure and sharp sand, also the odd bag of compost. We dug it in as deeply as we could manage. Ten years on, the soil in the borders bears no resemblance to that in the rest of the garden, it's just lovely and very workable. We've added more manure and grit sporadically over the years, and whenever I plant anything, I always put a trowel full of grit in the planting hole first. We've got zillions of earthworms too, that's always a good sign. Happy gardening.
Thanks for the replies everyone. I've been adding in grit and manure as I've planted, although probably not copious amounts, but at least a trowel's worth of each. I just wondered, as I've got some leftover, if it's something that can be lightly raked in to the top and will eventually work down in to the bed?
I had the best intentions of double digging but even when the ground was dry that was too tough, and I was put off by the amount of area I had to cover. I then tried single digging and even that didn't work all of the time. So I then resorted to the 3 times bigger planting hole approach to work in the grit and manure, but I was disappointed as I couldn't always achieve this with everything. This is why I'm wondering about adding the leftovers to the top, along with a good mulch of manure - I've also got some partly broken down leaves which I'm going to layer in as well. We have got hundreds of earthworms.
Lucid
leave leftovers on surface and the worms will do that work for you.
I remember , a million years ago, when I started gardening. We were clearing leaves at this time of year, and " the old boy" said "make sure you leave some for the worms"
Advice I've never forgotten and passed on regularly.