What to fill raised beds with for flowers

[krazy_krok]

Hi all,

I'm building some raised beds for my aunt so she can grow some flowers from bulbs and seeds. The problem is the soil i'm placing it on is heavy clay and is prone to water logging. I've got plenty of well rotted muck at the lottie to use and have sourced some topsoil at £12 a ton. was planning on mixing them together and baddind to the bed.

Do the flowers really need the manure?
Will the manure help the drainage?
Anything else i should do to help the drainage?

Any other tips greatly appreciated as not much experiance with heavy clay, so thought the raised beds will help drainage?

Cheers
KK

[selfraising]

My raised beds are on heavy clay. I tried to loosen the soil a bit before putting the raised beds on top. I think manure will help with drainage and I think adding grit would as well. Not sure if the flowers need manure, I guess it depends on what varieties you intend to plant. My flowers are actually in a border and not in the raised beds. Over the past few years I have just kept adding compost to the soil to improve drainage but haven't tried manure.
Most of the flowers have done really well. Clay soil is not all bad cos it does hang on to a lot of nutrients.

[rana]

I would be tempted to fork the muck in to the clay at the bottom of the raised beds then completely cover with the soil. The muck will help break down the clay.

Many flowers do not need a rich soil mixture and will perform better in ordinary top soil.
Too much nitrogon (eg from the manure) will give lush growth at the expense of flowers.

[piskieinboots]

mix in some top soil, some horticultural grit and maybe some sand - again, must be hort grade - any or all of these will open up the clay