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Brand new garden, heavy clay soil
EmmaM
Posts: 16
hi, I have just moved into a new house and at the moment have just had the garden turfed leaving a couple of borders.
I have discovered that the soil is a very heavy clay. I could probably dig it up and make a dinner service out of it!
i was hoping to create a cottage garden with climbers on the fences and lots of flowers But now I'm worried I don't know what plants will cope with the soil or what i can do about it.
Any ideas??
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Posts
Hi Emma. Don't despair, clay soils are rich in plant nutrients. It will just take a bit of hard work and patience. Dig in plenty of compost and grit and this will help to break up the soil. There are things you can buy to break up clay if it really is solid.
There are plenty of plants that like clay soil, such as roses.I have clay soil, and plants that do well include asters, geraniums, daylilies, penstemon, astilbes, veronica, peony and crocosmia.
Don't try to do it all at once. Do a small area at a time and plant with suitable plants. In the meantime, in the rest of the garden, plant and sow seeds for plants that don't mind heavy clay. There are lots of them. Have a look at your neighbour's gardens and see what does well.
I have heavy clay and only improve the soil around plants that are going to need it. It's best to go with what you have rather than to try to drastically change the soil.
Emma I Added agricultural gypsum and gravel and compost overtime and it as worked well and plants thrive just take your time and keep adding to improve drainage and the gypsum will break it down
We have an area beside our bungalow, it gets sun a lot of the day, but really heavy clay, soaking in winter, baked and cracked in summer, a nightmare to weed My Husband has now dug it out, and we are going to put top soil (just waiting for a new fence this Satur day) I had ferns,Arum lillies, Astrantia,primulas, tiarella, they were all very happy in the clay. My cousin said I should just make my own flower pots!
I have great clumps of grey and yellow clay in my soil and it was a nightmare to work for the first couple of years - but it's gradually getting there.
The best thing you can do for clay soil is to keep working it and to incorporate lots and lots of organic matter - rough textured or 'long' compost is good for clay. Digging breaks down clumps and the organic matter enriches and improves the texture. If you put in the work now you will have beautiful rich, moisture retentive soil within a couple of years.
If you have empty borders at the moment it's a perfect opportunity to do lots of soil improvement before you plant. Buy spent mushroom compost / composted farmyard manure / soil improver etc in bulk and spread it really thickly (6") over the borders and start digging it in. I have bought in literally truckloads of the stuff. If your garden is smaller you can buy this sort of thing by the cubic metre delivered in dumpy bags.
Personally - although it won't do any harm at all - I wouldn't bother adding grit except perhaps when you're planting bulbs or plants that need better drainage. I definitely wouldn't add sand (I have seen it suggested before) - that can make matters worse.
Finally I would second the suggestions to try to work with what you have. Enjoy being able to grow the clay lovers.
Just a nod to some of the comments made above.
"Work with what you" have is very good advice when it comes to clay soil. Unless you can dig out the entire layer of subsoil you will probably experience drainage issues at some time or other, so be prepared for some standing water after heavy rain. As already said, clay supports a wide range of plants; but you can replace the clay to a modest depth in some areas to widen planting options and make small improvements to drainage.
Clay's tenacious grip on the surface of a garden isn't necessarily a disadvantage, as I found out to my cost. If any of your garden is sloped, don't do what I did and replace the clay in the sloping areas with lighter material, only to watch that lighter material being washed away at the first sign of heavy rain!
There's clay soil and there is solid clay. If you have the latter you will not be able to grow healthy plants without improving it. Topbird has given very good advice though I would add grit myself. If drainage is a problem, build your borders up to raise the surface a little.
It is worth testing the soil to find out if it is acid, alkaline or neutral. My clay is too alkaline for some of the plants listed above and I found many plants struggled to take up nutrients, even though I seemed to be adding plenty of organic matter and blood fish and bone. I was advised to use a feed for ericacious plants and you could see the difference almost overnight!
Thank you for all of your help. I feel a bit less daunted at least!
Its a new build house and nobody else has started doing much with the gardens so I'm the Guinea pig. The developers have put a bit of top soil on so the first couple of inches aren't too bad but underneath that there are solid lumps of clay which has been very hard work to dig.
The garden does have a fair slope at the end so I guess it's good it won't all slide down into the hedge.
I'm going on a garden centre shopping spree at the weekend so I will get some of the things you've suggested and see how I get on.