Getting soil fine

[Gilberd]

Hi

I have only had my allotment a year but last year I had great trouble trying to get the soil fine enough to sow in.

The soil in very clay based. I have added organic matter in some parts but the other parts I really struggle to break down. Raking just seems to push it around & not break it down.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thank you

[WendyC]

You have done the right thing in adding organic matter, you need to keep adding. With clay the key is timing. It has to gave the right moisture content to be dry enough to crumble but wet enough not to set like cement! I keep membrane fabric handy. I uncover if I want rain to penetrate and cover either to keep the rain out or moisture in, depending on the weather. If you are trying to direct sow, e.g. Carrots, make a drill, fill it with some MPC, water it and sow your seed onto that and cover.
It will get better. I have two plots. The first one I have been working for a while and regularly manuring. It is a joy to dig. On the second plot I am still on my first dig and most of it hasn't been worked for about three years. It is hard going and I've been digging since November! To put it in perspective, the village where I live used to have a clay pit and brick making factory. The bricks were of such dense clay they were mainly used to line London's sewers!

[alldigging]

You only need the bit you're putting the seeds in to be fine!

Not fine soil makes for much more wobbly lines. That's my excuse. I have lots of clay still on my plot. I like to add as much organic matter as possible but it will take a long time until mine is all lovely and friable.


Sow in modules and plant the little plants out. Can really help if your soil is rough.

[Bohobumble]

I agree with Wendy and AD.

I'm on clay too, my village had a brick-works, organic matter is key, as is timing.

Use frosts to your advantage, especially in Winter when the ground is wetter. Frost is your friend.

Digging when the ground is frosty is the easiest digging you will do on clay. I learnt this recently.

Frost/defrost is what breaks up clay lumps into particles, so digging before a few frosts will help make the soil clump less.

When the frost has done it's work, rake it. Leave it for another frost/a week then rake again. Tada!

If it's for seeds then you only need to rake the first couple of centimetres to get a fine tilth. Beware your soil drying out too much on the surface and cracking later in the year - hoe it regularly to keep weeds down and keep your tilth going.

It will get easier when you add in more organic matter over a few years! You can never add too much manure - just beware your pH levels.

[the plumber]

raised beds

i built up raised beds. used composts. top soil. new compost. it takes a while but well worth it

[Mark Lottie]

You could stack up all your turves (stripped turf/top soil with weeds in) in a pile with the foilage upside down and leave it for a year covered if possible. The next year you will have nice crumbly soil to put on top. It is the same soil but because it dehydrated and had some organic matter rot down in it, it will be a bit more loam-y / loam-ish

Did this last year and am now reaping the benefits

[Snadger]

Tickle over the clay in the autumn, let the frost get to work on it,wait until its dry on the surface in the spring.
The trick to getting a nice seedbed is to keep the rake handle almost vertical when finishing.

[Kristen]

Hi

I have only had my allotment a year but last year I had great trouble trying to get the soil fine enough to sow in.

The soil in very clay based. I have added organic matter in some parts but the other parts I really struggle to break down. Raking just seems to push it around & not break it down.

Traditionally on clay the method used was to walk on it with a sort of shuffle. Heel of one foot in the instep of the other, then move the other foot forward have a foot so its heel is in the instep of the other.

However, the trick to this is doing it at just the right time after rain. It must be dry enough that the soil does not stick to your boots, and definitely dry enough so that the soil does not compact under your weight. This often involves waiting a while, in spring, for the lower soil to become dry (to take your weight) and then waiting for a shower ... then a day or so later the clods still have moisture inside them and will crumble easily when walked on. And then rake so the surface is even.

You might need two or three days, with showers , and subsequent walking & raking, before the seed bed is fine enough.

Organic matter will help, but not for this year, nor next I suspect ...

Or you can go what I call the maximum faff route ... which I have now done for as many years as I can remember. For me this comes out of having heavy clay and not being able to get on it early in the spring, having to work! so not being available at the right time after the right rain shower, and the soil being cold & wet in winter and, some years, long into the spring.

So I now sow everything in modules / pots and plant out. The means that I can get on during the winter, sow when I like / have time, even in the evenings when it is dark / raining / cold outside.

Although there is considerable faff to sowing, pricking out, potting on, watering, nurturing! there are upsides too. I am immune to weather / seasons with late Springs. I grow precisely the number of each plant that I want (based on records from previous years with notes alongside of "Too Many" or "Too Few" (and things like Cauliflowers, that will go-over if you plant a whole row of them, I sow 4-6 each fortnight for a continuous harvest) but for me the main benefit is that I plant a plant in the soil; that plant is, say, 6 weeks ahead of if I sowed a seed outside instead. I hoe the bed before I plant, so the weeds start 6 weeks behind the plants, and never catch up. No fiddly hand weeding to try to get the weeds out of a row of seedlings. I also delay having to get on the soil by 6 weeks, by which time the soil is warm and Spring has arrived and the land is workable. Its probably April before I plant out the first plants (well, Broadbean and Onion plants go out in March ...)

Some things can't be grown like this, in particular roots like Carrots, although I do grow Parsnips in tall pots made from newspaper and plant them out "whole". But in the main "everything" else does.

To start everything off indoors you need a conservatory (and a spouse that will cut you some slack from February to April!) that you can keep at 10C minimum (mine needs no heat from March onwards, and a little heat in February, but you don't have to start that early), or a greenhouse (but heating that is more expensive as insulation is non existent, you can line with bubblewrap though)

[Bohobumble]

sow everything in modules / pots and plant out. The means that I can get on during the winter, sow when I like / have time, even in the evenings when it is dark / raining / cold outside.
......

Some things can't be grown like this, in particular roots like Carrots, although I do grow Parsnips in tall pots made from newspaper and plant them out "whole". But in the main "everything" else does.

To start everything off indoors you need a conservatory (and a spouse that will cut you some slack from February to April!) that you can keep at 10C minimum (mine needs no heat from March onwards, and a little heat in February, but you don't have to start that early), or a greenhouse (but heating that is more expensive as insulation is non existent, you can line with bubblewrap though)

Yeah, the pots route too, I always seem to buy more trays! I don't have a conservatory, think this is why my sowing fingers get so itchy in Jan/Feb (and shouldn't!) as I know there will be jostling for window space in March/April so want to get a 'head start'. Try to resist.

They then get kicked into the greenhouse when likely to cope (I keep the frosts off where I can)

The key is sowing the bare minimum of each desired variety to fit in the varieties you want, then succession sowing later on, followed by direct sowing when ready. Most things will catch up, and if you keep records this will help you plan regimented sowing the next year.

Except for alliums, you want to maximise your numbers there to give them the best chance of growing big enough in time. Buy you can kick them into the greenhouse early after germination.

[Nicola.P]

I am on clay and it is my first year. I have built wooden edgings for a raised bed but only added a couple of inches of compost so I have enough to sow into. I have also made them narrow enough so I never have to walk on it.

[Gilberd]

Thank you for all the great ideas, really helpful.

[Two_Sheds]

Mulch, mulch, mulch.
The quickest way to improve any soil is to add mulch, like a forest does. Feel the soil under trees, it's lovely and friable.

Don't have mulch? Use chopped up weeds. I grow my own "straw" in the form of alfalfa, phacelia etc, and this winter the dead remains of nasturtiums have done an excellent job

[sparrow100]

My soil's clay too. I have been adding as much organic matter as I can get my hands on for the last 2 years and it is getting a lot better, same as WendyC.

[bario1]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Same here!

[KevinM67]

I too have really clay soil and have no access to free/cheap manure.

I also used to really struggle with weeds - which I used to have a massive chop down and then burn them.

After reading many a thread on here last year ('cough-Two Sheds-cough') - I now realise how stupid I was.

The nettles are now starting to appear around the perimeter of my plot and the communal path which runs alongside it - I cannot wait. They will be chopped down regularly throughout the Spring/Summer and thrown on my beds rather than the bonfire. They also provide much needed Nitrogen for the soil as well.