Gardening in England - Clay soil in the garden

Author

Clay soil in the garden

chris lowe

2007-03-31, 1:25 pm

Hi everyone,
We've moved into a house with what used to be a nice 2 tier garden, alas the
previous owner was a bit of an idiot and dug out the top tier - about 3ft of
topsoil was disposed of - so he could have a flat lawn. Now we're left with
the underlying clay rubbish which is compacted and sticky and impossible to
dig / rake etc. As he dug out 3ft of earth the garden is now so low down it
hardly gets any sun and doesn't drain which has made the clay even worse and
even the grass has stopped growing and moss has appeared in its place!

My question is, Is there anything we can do like adding sand etc to the clay
to make it more habitable for plants, even veggies, as at the moment it just
looks awful!

Any help would be most appreciated as I don't fancy moving 10tons of topsoil
back in!!!

Chris

Bob Hobden

2007-03-31, 8:25 pm

"chris lowe" wrote
> We've moved into a house with what used to be a nice 2 tier garden, alas
> the
> previous owner was a bit of an idiot and dug out the top tier - about 3ft
> of
> topsoil was disposed of - so he could have a flat lawn. Now we're left
> with
> the underlying clay rubbish which is compacted and sticky and impossible
> to
> dig / rake etc. As he dug out 3ft of earth the garden is now so low down
> it
> hardly gets any sun and doesn't drain which has made the clay even worse
> and
> even the grass has stopped growing and moss has appeared in its place!
>
> My question is, Is there anything we can do like adding sand etc to the
> clay
> to make it more habitable for plants, even veggies, as at the moment it
> just
> looks awful!
>
> Any help would be most appreciated as I don't fancy moving 10tons of
> topsoil
> back in!!!
>
Clay soil is usually a very fertile soil as it hold onto nutrients and
doesn't let the rain wash them through. However if it's solid clay subsoil
it will be poor in nutrients too. What on earth was the chap thinking of
getting rid of the topsoil.

Now your problem seems to be drainage, and probably a cold soil too, so
incorporating anything to improve the drainage will help. I know of an
allotment where sand has been used to lighten clay and with yearly
incorporation of organic material too the soil is now like potting compost.
Grit would also work.

But before you do anything do check the pH of the clay as some are quite
acid, well under pH 7, and a good dressing of garden lime to sort that out
would also help to break up the clay, as would gypsum if you can lay your
hands on some.

Take a look at...
http://www.aglime.org.uk/technical05.htm

you need to do some maths to get to the small amounts needed in the usual
garden/allotment.
To help I list a few conversions.. :-)

multiply the Hectares figures by 0.4047 to get acres.
1 acre is 4840 sq yards.
1 Tonne is 1,000 Kg.
Normal GC bag contains 25 Kg.

For our brassica bed, for example, we needed 52Kg of lime and it lasts about
4 years before you need to retest and reapply.

--
Regards
Bob H
17mls W. of London.UK

MadCow

2007-04-01, 8:25 pm

In message <m%uPh.78$76.8@newsfe3-gui.ntli.net>, chris lowe
<Dinlowe@ntlworld.com> writes
>
>My question is, Is there anything we can do like adding sand etc to the clay
>to make it more habitable for plants, even veggies, as at the moment it just
>looks awful!
>

Organic matter. Lots of it, and a bit of time.

Compost everything you can, and bury some of the things you can't
compost - twigs, lawn mowings. If you know anyone who rakes up leaves
and throws them away, offer to take them off his hands.

Whenever you dig, dig in some compost. Mulch early and often.
Manure is good too if you can get it cheap enough.

Be especially kind to earthworms, they finish off the job by mixing clay
with compost to make soil.

--
Sue ]

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