Clay Soil - help!

[Sunbeam]

My ventures in to gardening have so far been limited to growing tomatoes in a baby bath on the South east corner of our house ... then a couple of months ago I went a little mad & hired a rotivator... I now have a nice 14x 12 foot veg patch on the North west patch of garden - unfortunately our earth is very heavy clay - I can make models out of it! (and have done so when resting from the heavy digging!)

My neighbour, who have lived in her house for 70 + years has beautiful soil - I see relatives rotivating it on a twice yearly basis - I assume this is achieved by regular digging etc... I have dug 6 bags of sharp sand & 4 x 120 litre bags of compast (peat free) into it and it has a better consistancy but when it rains it seems to set into solid lumps again... is there anything that can be done? (I don't want to have to wait til I am 70!! )

I have also started growing plants from seed - I have runner beans on my window sill next to some sweetcorn, have dug in some main crop king eds & planted some peas, & have broccoli & cauli plants sitting in my poly house - is it safe to plant them out? Or have I jumped the gun and started too early with the beans etc??

[pigletwillie]

Your soil believe it or not is the best for nutrients and holding onto water during dry spells, it`s drawback is that it can be a nightmare to get into a workable consistency. This wont happen overnight but will take a year or two to get into good order. You are already working in the right direction by adding sand and the compost, both of which will help with its consistency. The only way to make it more open is to keep adding organic matter be it leafmould, compost, manure and to a smaller extent sand or grit.

You can bulk buy this from most councils as they often have compost schemes. Make a compost bin (or two) as this will give you fabulous compost to add to your soil. As it dries out your soil will improve somewhat and be more manageable so dont think thats what it will be like all year.

Your choice of plants sounds wonderful. The beans and corn cant go out until the threat of frost has passed but the others should be ok as long as they are not planted out into saturated ground. It may be best to leave them until it dries out a little. Keep an eye on your tatties as if the frost gets the shoots it can be a bit disasterous. You will need to earth them up as the shoots poke up, (just cover them up with a few inches of soil)

[nick the grief]

Loads & Loads of organic matter is the answer as Piglet says. Clay soils have very small regular shaped grains that knit together easily. What you want to do is to put some iregular shapes & sizes in it to give you a more granular structure with air gaps in it (voids) this is what lets the water seep away. You can buy stuf that is called Claybreaker ut it's only a quick fix I've found in the past. Nowt like muck

Science lesson over back to the abuse & teapot now

[Geordie]

The only othe option is to remove soil to a depth of 2 foot(ish), get rid of it and then replace with new topsoil. Whatever depth you remove just dont dig or rotivate below this in future years.

[charliefred]

I have very heavy clay soil with chunks of lime in the size of house bricks. I've found the best long term solution is horse manure. The structure of this seems in total contrast to the soil and complements it. In places I have added sand but the soil seems able to reject this and even after putting in a layer a foot down I am now finding a layer on top. You may also find as I have that the soil locks up plant nutrients and a fertiliser spray ( any suggestions of good alternatives I would appreciate) will be more beneficial in the early years. Good luck but be prepared for some hard work. As an example I am the only one in my immediate area still endevouring to grow veg, everyone else has gone over to lawn.

Regards CF

[Nicos]

Sunbeam - I am with the others on adding loads of organic matter. Our first allotment sounds similar to how yours is now. On a good year, it was too wet to even consider digging it until about now, and even then the frogs would lay frogsspawn in the flooded trenches we had left overnight!

The best thing we did was to add loads of different types of organic matter, so they would act and rot in different ways. Aswell as the old bags of potting compost and some sand we put in our own compost;horse,cow and chicken manure; mushroom compost;and loads of used hops from the local brewery. We also managed to persuade the local council to unofficially dump some of their autumn road sweepings (99% leaves) on a spare plot and when it had rotted dug that in too. Friends and family saved their leaf fall in black bin bags (from a variety of trees) and they too were added the following year. We ended up with easy to manage soil which produced great veg (although the carrots were always a bit oddly shaped !!!)
The variety of organic matter certainly made a big difference !
It was hard work, but well worth it. I'm sure it won't be long before yours is like that too.

[Sunbeam]

I appear to have a lot of hardwork ahead of me!! (All that digging will shift a few pounds i hope!!) I already have a compost heap going at the back of the garden but it doesn't appear to be ready to use yet - you can still see the shapes of the old leaves etc I put in (hind site says maybe I should've done the black plastic bag thing first!! ) It was really dry in there so I added a 1/2 bucket of water to help things rot down- I hope this was the right thing to do otherwise I'll have to start a fresh!

I may persuade my dearly beloved to come and 'poo-pick' (professional horseman's term so I am led to believe!) at our local stables this easter bank hols (Like I can see that happening!!! ) so I can add this to my compost! I assume if it is well enough rotted I can dig it straight in to the ground??

Many thanks for all your advice - I am certainly a complete novice when it comes to growing things (except tomatoes!) but I hope this will all change in the near future. I planted main crop king eds along with some peas last weekend - are these likely to do anything or will I have to wait til I've dug in more organic matter?? (the peas are under a cloche)

All the best for a hopefully dry bank hols weekend (so I can do more digging & not lose my wellies in the mud (again ))

Sunbeam

[jimbo]

i began the same way and kept going. it needs patience but the rewards are worth whie.
jimbo.

[Nicos]

OK..so how is it going now Sunbeam???