Help needed: Clay bed for wildflowers

Hi all,

I’ve dug out approx 30m2 on slope as bed for wildflower meadow. Turf and moss all removed. Still need to cut out some roots from nearby Rhododendron.

Question now is, how broken up does my clay soil need to be for sowing a clay wildflower mix? All blogs / advice talk about creating a fine till for a wildflower meadow. But, my soil is very heavy (and currently saturated clay); a fine till would be impossible. Nearby borders are same clay soil but improved manageability with lots of organic matter. However, I understand that wildflowers shouldn’t have any improver added to the sowing bed..also, size and slope would make adding any matter v. Tough indeed.

Do I just need to wait for a week of dry and then break up as best as possible by hand with fork / spade (rotavator possibly on lowest slope section but roots may preclude this)?

Any advice much appreciated.

 

Hello and welcome to the forums.
It needs to dry out so that you can rotavate it. If you look on the thread What are you doing in the garden, @Retired has a sloping garden with clay, he's been sowing wild flowers for a few years now.

 

I'd go with this one and use the one week in spring when it's workable and break up surface as best as possible, a rake would probably help get a good even finish.

 

You do not say (even in avatar) where you are located. I would not rotovate, risk of run off due to slope. I would fork over shallowly, say 2", and hope for a sharp frost, and/or drying winds (in March). Depending upon your choice of seed, a dressing of fine garden lime may help break up the clay.(or gypsum if available) .
When dry and crumbly, rake and tread to break up any persistant lumps. Mix your seed with silver (sometimes called river sand) or dry sharp sand. Consolidate to ensure good seed contact with soil .Water gently so as not to get run off, repeat as required.
Net sown area to prevent birds eating your sowing(s) of expensive seed.

 

Hi,

Many thanks for the mention @Logan much appreciated.

Welcome to the forum Ben; you're in good company the members are a great bunch and very helpful indeed.

You've started off with a real challenge; wild flowers can be difficult to grow; it looks easy but as in my case involved years of very heavy work. Your plot is nicely cleared so you're off to a good start.

Rotavating is extremely hard work on a steeply sloping site but can be done with great success although it can also be dangerous.

I didn't remove our grass; the first year I dug over using a spade turning the grass in squares to bury the grass. I bought an Hyundai new petrol rotavator but even though the grass had been dug over and left for winter; in springtime the rotavator was useless just bouncing around out of control tiring me out.

Being so steep in a way is a bonus; given two very rare dry consecutive days it should dry sufficiently to allowing work to be carried out; it's better too wet than too dry; wet is easier for digging; start at the top and work steadily across; as you turn each spadeful over break it up then on to the next spadeful; just stick at it and enjoy mugs of tea and lumps of cake to keep you fully charged. I had to dig over twice breaking up the grass sods then the rotavator finally showed interest although it still bounced around; I had lots of tree roots; bricks; stones and all manner of debris to contend with; it was incredibly hard work but the first years wildflower meadow was absolutely stunning making it all worth while.

If you haven't already bought the wildflower seeds may I recommend;

Wildflower Seeds, Plugs Plants and Bulbs

Further; if you send a picture of your site and explain it's clay to Meadowmania they will suggest best seeds to buy; I'm biased and admit it I've been very happy with the seeds from Meadowmania. I'm troubled by dire weather which apart from the first year has destroyed the last few meadows so this year I've bought a lower growing mix in the hope the flowers don't get flattened this year.

Our valley side is mostly clay in fact years ago we had a brick making company nearby. Due to our garden being like a mini forest with huge trees; over the years leaves and pine needles falling enriched the soil until now when the soil is very fertile indeed; it's recommended to grow wildflowers on poor soil but perhaps I'm just lucky having no problems at all growing in such rich soil.

Shallow digging should work as suggested by @infradig but be careful adding sand especially soft building sand; after all clay and sand make nice bricks.

https://www.gardenzine.co.uk/clay-soil.html

Each Autumn after the first frost and the flowers have dropped their seed I strim then go over with the mower before finally rotavating; yes it goes against advice not adding goodness but I doubt I could get better results.


It's taken years of hard heavy work to make our garden like this.

A couple of days ago the rain let me out for 30 minutes just long enough allowing me to strim the grass edges

This is the Howard petrol rotavator I've just restored and this is self powered making it a great deal easier to control. It weighs around 80kg fueled and I rotavate uphill on the very steep parts allowing it to freewheel back down for each pass; I'm very aware of the high danger involved not allowing it to overcome me; I don't recommend doing this to a novice unused to using such heavy machines.


The meadows tend to change as the flowering season progresses; these came up first.

Later these came up. I'm sure you'd be over the moon if you can do the same Ben.

Good luck.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

Thanks very much for this. I’m inferring then, that lime or gypsum can negatively impact germination of some types of seed?

 

You might have seeds that don't like lime or gypsum and your welcome.