How do you make clay soil ideal for planting?
Answers:
Incorporate organic matter (peat, compost, rotted manure). The organic matter dilutes the clay keeping it from compacting and becoming sticky thus improving both the drainage and aeration.
Also test the pH of your soil. Most herbaceous perennials like 6.0-6.5 which is slightly acidic (7.0 is neutral). Azaleas and blueberries like acid (below 6.0). Perennial sweet peas like around a 7.5. Your local garden centre can help you pick the right plants for your soil's pH; and if necessary help you change the pH.
Other answers:
Add compost! Or "organic soil amendments" that you can get at home depot. Do NOT add sand or you will make cement.
Compost compost compost. It's the answer to any soil problem, really. If you don't have a compost heap, start one now. My favorite composting materials are paper shreds from my office (I shred all credit card offers, etc) and STARBUCKS "garden grinds". They give them away for free. With just those two items alone you will have a killer compost heap that your garden will love.
Have fun gardening!
Add compost! Or "organic soil amendments" that you can get at home depot. Do NOT add sand or you will make cement.
Compost compost compost. It's the answer to any soil problem, really. If you don't have a compost heap, start one now. My favorite composting materials are paper shreds from my office (I shred all credit card offers, etc) and STARBUCKS "garden grinds". They give them away for free. With just those two items alone you will have a killer compost heap that your garden will love.
Have fun gardening!
You'll need to get some "soil conditioner". It is a mixture of potting soil, mulch, etc. Mix it in with the clay and build the flower bed slightly higher than the ground with either soil conditioner or potting soil. Cover a little more than half the plant's root ball with the soil and then mulch the rest with something like pine bark nuggets.
You can buy top soil and have it delivered pretty cheap. It was like $20.00 total for a couple tons to be delivered. I live in southern Ohio.
Fertilize with vegetable matter, coffee grinds and egg shells. If you have a composter, add the contents of that. Be patient and rotate the soil frequently.
When we first moved to this house in 1976, the soil wasn't fit to grow anything. It was definitely clay soil. Now it is very healthy and grows whatever I plant in it.
If you need a quick fix, buy peat moss and amazingly enough, alfalfa pellets. You can get them both at your local co-op. Till them both in, along with any kind of seasoned manure, if you can get it. The alfalfa pellets actually contain a hormone that helps plants grow, and they are fairly high in nitrogen. Mulch very well after planting with an organic mulch. Just till the mulch in when you do it, and in a couple years you will have some killer garden soil. In the fall, mow annuals down with your lawn mower, so that they can break down quicker.
all the above plus gypsum, which is added to clay soil to break it up.
I've had great results with garden gypsum and with peat moss.
First of all, DO NOT MIX IN SAND, sand and clay mixed together make concrete. I would work 2-3 inches of soil pep, nutri-mulch, well composted cow manure...you get the idea. This needs to be done every year to every two years.
We also have a product in Utah called Utelite. It is a backed shale product. It doesn't break down and improves drainage in clay soil.