Clay Soil

[MancGardener]

I have had my allotment for a few weeks now but was in hospital for a week so haven't been able to crack on as much as I wanted. However the soil seems really poor and is really heavy clay. I dug a couple of trenches but the soil was so clumpy when I filled it back.

How do I improve my soil, do I need to rotovate it?

[Farmer_Gyles]

it's an allotment - the previous user will have grown veggies - that means you can grow them too without having to do anything major to it - it may not be as heavy or as bad as you think

before trying to do any "soil improvements", have a word with other plot holders, see what they think - they'll have the same soil as you and will know the best things for you to do

[rustylady]

Rotovating it won't help. What you need to do is add as much bulky organic matter as you can. If you haven't already then start a compost heap.

I really don't understand why you are digging trenches either.

[zazen999]

Nothing wrong with clay soil - I'd have that to start with any day over sand.

I recommend using cardboard to mulch, and plant through it. Use either lumps of clay to keep the cardboard down, or any bricks/stones/home made compost/anything you have handy. Once it is in position, and you have plants to plant out, cut a cross in the cardboard, dig out your planting hole [use a bulb planter if you have one] plant your plant, put the removed soil back into the hole, firm in and fold the cross back over the soil.

For carrots and parsnips, this is one area to dig - but add some sand and then sow your seeds direct - making sure you dig the sand in well - and remove any large stones. Then cover with a fine netting, weed once the seedlings are about 2 inches high and again later in the summer - keeping the netting on at all times.

[Peas'n'Kews]

Zazen - like the carrot and parsnip tip, but unsure what the netting does - can you explain?

Ta muchly!

[rustylady]

Zazen - like the carrot and parsnip tip, but unsure what the netting does - can you explain?

Ta muchly!

You need the netting to keep the carrot flies off your precious crops.

[Kaiya]

I have had my allotment for a few weeks now but was in hospital for a week so haven't been able to crack on as much as I wanted. However the soil seems really poor and is really heavy clay. I dug a couple of trenches but the soil was so clumpy when I filled it back.

'Poor' and 'clay' are almost contradictions Clay is a gorgeous water retaining fertile medium. You just have to give it some organic matter (or inorganic, although I've never added sand) to improve the drainage. Learn to love your clay! But leave it alone until the weather dries up a bit digging it with this rain is unpleasant and I don't feel it's great for the soil either (much easier when it's a little drier). And try not to walk on it unless you have to.

[Two_Sheds]

the soil seems really poor

What makes you think that? Is there nothing growing on it? Weeds? (if it grows weeds, it can grow veg, they're all just plants at the end of the day)

As the others have said, clay is fabulous for retaining water (obviously) and it's rich in nutrients. All you have to do with it now is add humus over the years, in the form of homemade garden compost: the more the better.

No need to "dig it in", because actually the worms prefer to pull it down for themselves and they'll save you a lot of work. Just add it as a mulch onto wet soil, or put some in the planting holes when planting out your veggies

[sarah_rance]

I am barely qualified to comment and certainly dont take any "advice" from me - But my garden is all clay.
When it didnt rain every hour in the day and it was a little drier (in March !) I threw a load of MP compost in a big raised bed I have and mixed it through.
I've now got spuds, onions, radishes, beetroot, and carrots (I chose atlas ones) all doing okay in it.

Like I said - My advice is not to be trusted but its working okay for me for now.

[baby_blue]

my lottie is clay too, it just seems awful to dig because of all the rain we've had. i had dug my beds a couple of months ago, raked them all over to a fine tilth and left the lumps to dry out, then i went back and bashed them out with my rake, lovely and crumbly! perfect.

i thought clay soil was going to be a nightmare too, but my lottie neighbours seem to be growing an awful lot of fruit and veg with no problems (except for the rabbits of course!)

[di]

I love my clay
Up until last year, me and hubbie had three plots, two clay and one sandy. We split up and I knew three would be too much for me on my own...I gave up the sandy one.

Sandy soil is a piece of cake to work. Other than deep ground frosts, there weren't many weather conditions that prevented me from working it...as opposed to clay, if it's too wet it just sticks to your fork/spade and you're trampling it down whilst working. Too dry and it's like concrete.(This year, to overcome not managing to get it all 'worked' when workable, I've adopted tips from here and layered with cardboard which I'll plant straight through)

However, for growing. I found sowing and watering a nightmare on the sandy plot. Things dried out really quickly and I just didn't get on with it.

The clay plots. I add all I can to the top. I think a tip from here was adding coffe grounds to the surface to prevent the cracking...it's working for me.

Like Zaz, I add sand where my carrots go, the only thing I'll add is, this year I've become rather into mulching with cardboard and newspaper. For my carrots, I've made a simple 'V' trench with my spade, filled with a mix of sand and compost, then soaked newspaper to lay as a mulch and done two rows with a couple of centimetres between them(the 'V' trench being the middle, then directly sown my carrot seed.

[taff]

was the soil clumpy because it was wet or because there were loads of weed roots in it?
It looks fine in the pictures, but we've had a lot of rain.
and when we don't have rain, mulching really does make a huge difference.

[Kaiya]

For my carrots, I've made a simple 'V' trench with my spade, filled with a mix of sand and compost, then soaked newspaper to lay as a mulch and done two rows with a couple of centimetres between them(the 'V' trench being the middle, then directly sown my carrot seed.

Where do you put the newspaper Di? I have an issue with couch grass in my carrot patch and trying to work out how to use a mulch to suppress the couch whilst also being able to plant root veg. Is the newspaper laid between carrot trenches?

[Two_Sheds]

Newspaper won't suppress couch much: you really need to dig that stuff out, then use a newspaper mulch to keep the other weeds down

[smallfrog]

Ours was /is clay and we were given two bits of advice 1 work it 2 feed it.

Really bad bits had a crop of potatos chucked in this help to break the soil down.
I have dug trenches for beans and filled with compost, horse muck and back filled then moved trenches round the next year.

We also set some green manure over last winter and that seemed to help. I think it was rye grass.