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Small Garden with heavy clay
Michael194
Posts: 2
I have a small garden 25 x 15ft, laid to lawn in middle, but with heavy poor quality clay soil. There are small borders at the edges with an old vine, a dwarf James Grieve apple tree planted in 2012 but moved in Feb to make way for a shed, and a rose bush. I would like to keep these.
I would like to start from scratch and wish to improve the soil, what is the best way to do this? Dig out the clay from the borders and replace with compost/grit? What plants/shrubs can i plant after that, not too big, but large enough to give some privacy as fences are low. Any advice will be much appreciated. Thankyou.
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Hi MIchael. I wouldn't dig out the clay as it is actually a good soil - once tamed - with lots of nutrients. Dig in loads of well rotted manure and grit and be prepared to repeat this several times over the next few seasons. If the clay is the awful grey stuff thats really subsoil then your remedy will probably be the best option. You will know which type you have. A sample of shrubs/ trees that like clay are: euonymus; Japanese acers; berberis; amelanchier; cotoneaster and buddleja.
Many plants do perfectly well in clay soil, so I wouldn't worry too much about improving it. You can add organic material / sand / grit to the planting hole when you put in new plants, but other than that I would do nothing. Choose plants to suit the soil, rather than the other way round!
Hi
Agree with above, clay is good soil, I had a lovely garden with clay soil at my last place, you just need to break the structure up a bit.
I did add compost and slow release granules and bark each year but I'm a bit of a lazy digger, I only dig in the first year, subsq years I just throw compost and bark on top and let the worms take it down.
I found Acanthus and crocosmia flourished on my clay, there's lots you can grow on it - If you avoid the Mediterranean type plants that like good drainage, so no chance with lavenders etc.
For evergreen privacy try Photnia Red Robin, they grew well for me, seem to grow anywhere as they're just as happy here now on my flint/chalk. If you grow as standards/lift the crown you could get height but grow underneath too. Also easy to trim/keep to size.
Good luck.
ps-I had a big slug/snail problem on damp clay so you may want to avoid the plants slugs love, I never got on top of it on clay even with nematodes and nightly patrols!
Thankyou all for your valuable replies. You have reassured me that I don't need to remove the clay and I can easily break it down. I will definitely take all your advice on board and look forward to planting.