Newbie with a clay soil

[syanide]

Can someone give me a "2 year old's" definition of mulching please? it's just that some people use that term for covering weeds to kill them and some people are using it talk about improving the soil...I'm a little confused...

[HeyWayne]

Can someone give me a "2 year old's" definition of mulching please? it's just that some people use that term for covering weeds to kill them and some people are using it talk about improving the soil...I'm a little confused...

Chuck it on top of the soil, and with a combination of insects, worms, rain and various other contributing factors it'll work it's way into the soil thus improving it's structure over time.

In the short term it starves weedlings of light - vital to their growth.

Goo goo ga ga.

[giley69]

I have clay soil: northern edge of teh Potteries so it's very heavy and mixed with small coal lumps ( yes really: there was open cast mining in the fields above us- 200 years ago.)

Digging is a waste of time. I add layers of compost and leaf mulch and dig no more than 20 cms.. and plants in the mix.. After 20 odd years it's quite friable...

Still cracks in hot summers like 2 years ago: like 80cm deep, 0cm wide and 3 metres long!


Mulch like mad.. dig as little as possible. the worms do the digging...

I like the sound of 'digging is a waste of time'! Went up there yesterday to water & parts of the plot looked like the moon... had a bit of a panic on and wasn't sure if any of the delicate seeds would make it through the top soil.. potatoes are coming through just fine as are the onions and garlic!
ill get compost on Saturday and use when we are planting etc...

[yoanbob]

we have very clay soil, just like you and it does dry out on top but most of the time is ok underneath, its very fertile. we dug the beds the first year but we wont do it again, we cover with cardboard in in the winter and weed fabric too, I wouldnt worry too much about earthing up as not earthing up only harms the plants in the frost, just earth up what you can when you can you will still get lots of pots.
we water only when its been very dry for a week or so. or if we have very delicate seeds in. I only plant out things like cabbage and garlic as seed. the rest I do in the greenhouse till they are big enough to cope.
just add all the organic stuff you can it will get better and you will learn to work with it.

[giley69]

we have very clay soil, just like you and it does dry out on top but most of the time is ok underneath, its very fertile. we dug the beds the first year but we wont do it again, we cover with cardboard in in the winter and weed fabric too, I wouldnt worry too much about earthing up as not earthing up only harms the plants in the frost, just earth up what you can when you can you will still get lots of pots.
we water only when its been very dry for a week or so. or if we have very delicate seeds in. I only plant out things like cabbage and garlic as seed. the rest I do in the greenhouse till they are big enough to cope.
just add all the organic stuff you can it will get better and you will learn to work with it.

thanks for the advice, I will chill out a bit and just monitor what's going on!