Growing in clay soil - what to do?

[TheChemist]

'Real' clay soil is so heavy and wet you can't dig it in winter, or only with great difficulty and then it becomes rock solid when it dries out in late spring and summer. So you only have a small window of opportunity to cultivate your soil in spring!

The answer to this is to open up the soil with lots of organic matter, which sounds so easy but can take years. Lime does help but you need loads of it and to work it in to make a real difference.

I am a great believer in methods using loads of top mulch, everything from straw to wood chips, as long as they are not dug in as this will rob nitrogen from the soil. Take a look at the Youtube videos on 'Back to Eden' (rather hyped) and One Yard Revolution which is well informed, and you will get the idea.

Essentially, by keeping the very poor soil completely covered with a deep layer of mulch, you retain the moisture meaning it can still be cultivated in summer, and the mulch suppresses the growth of annual weeds.

It can be tedious as it means you need to grow the plants in modules or pots to plant out by drawing back the mulch, and to sow you need to clear a wide drill of mulch and work the surface layer into a decent tilth.

I do believe this is one of the easiest ways of dealing with difficult and weedy ground, though you need a good source of free mulch. You might find a wood supplier who has bark chips for free and you can use ruined straw from a farm or stables.

Luckily I have a friend who owns an arable farm with a few hundred chickens and some cows knocking about Thanks for the Youtube video suggestions. I'll give them a watch tonight!

[SusieG]

NOT so lazy beds!

Marchogaeth, just looked at your pics of lazy beds from 22nd March - just totally inspired me for my little plot project. Can't wait to get started now! Most definitely going to grow some green manures over winter