Help with digging clay soil

Clay is hard work, my garden and both allotments are on clay.

My advice would be to work on just a couple of beds for this year for a few veggies, just so you are getting some reward from the garden. If you can dig the whole thing over then all well and good and as was suggested above a large crop of potatoes could be planted.

When money is lacking, effort takes over and you can take some relatively simple steps to help improve the soil that you are not growing in this year. Ask neighbours if you can raid their green bins for green matter such as grass, dig that in to the soil, collect autumn leaves, dig them in. Once a farmer has baled his hay/straw in the summer, ask if you can collect the excess from the field edges and dig that in too.

I recently mowed 5 neighbours lawns, front and back (twice), I kept the grass clippings for my compost heap, I have a road local to me where leaf fall collects on the pavement, I go and clear it every autumn, end result, 20+ bin liners of leaves. My area is rural so I get plenty of straw from field edges too.

All gets spread onto my beds and roughly dug in, again it was said above but the worms do the work for you here. And having the garden turned over at the back end will allow the frost at it too.

Clay soil will take a few years of working to come good, but it will and every year you should notice it getting better, easier to work.

Steve...

 

I'll add the sand aswell then, not got a huge amount though, just 3 and a half bags.

I already have cut down the area for this year, the bit i'm working on is only about 1/3 of what I eventually want to use for vegetables. 1 1/3 still has grass on it and the other 1/3 might work out great when mixed or might cause even more problems. It has about 3 inches of really sandy soil on top of hard packed clay, If sharp sand is good for clay maybe digging it all up will make it good. There must have used to be slabs up there at some point layed on sand, I actually thought it was concreted when I first moved in as it was brick hard and really flat, was only when I started in the garden I realised it was just a hard crust of sand and clay that has had slabs on it for years. I'm also toying with the idea of planting veg in my front garden but it's always very damp and doesn't get much sun so not sure if that will work.

Leaves should be easy to get as I live next to a large woodlands that I could get an unlimited amount of leaves from. I'm already planning on making a compost bin, I have the wood already just need to build it, I'll ask my neighbour for his grass cuttings to put in it as well. I live on the edge of a town surrounded by fields, will look into left over hay later in the year.

I also read somewhere about planting sweet clover in autumn and leaving it to grow then digging it into the soil in spring so i'll need to look into that aswell

Could I plant potatoes in the grass area that I want to turn into a veg garden next year? If I can I was thinking that digging it at the end of the year might be much easier if the potatoes break it all up. I was thinking just removing the grass from around the seedling or would it not work

 

@namaah
As others have said anything organic will help break up the clay.

I would ask permission from the landowner before collecting leaves. As they might want them left for conservation purposes.

This is a good idea, it will help stop the soil compacting over the winter as well as helping the soil structure and adding organic matter. There are other "Green Manures" available for different times of year and crop rotations. More info here https://www.greenmanure.co.uk/pages/what-is-green-manure and here https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=373

No they require warmer conditions and are generally trickier than potatoes and best grown under cover.
I wouldn't plant the potatoes on the grass area as you will still have to dig it and break it up to allow you to plant the potatoes.

The cabbage, kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts and cauliflower will benefit from an application of lime before planting. The lime will also help to break up the clay but follow the instructions on the packet.

 

The woodland is owned by the community, we are allowed to take anything from it aslong as we dont dig up anything or damage anything which is great because it is full of cherry and plum trees and has wild raspberries, strawberries and brambles. I pick loads of fruit from them when they are ripe.

I'll read those links about the green manure thanks.

Ok i'll leave the sweet potatoes for now then and just plant normal potatoes in some of the bit i'm digging now.

I'll also add lime to my list of things to buy.

 

There is so many different green manures. Am i right in thinking that since I am not planting any legumes in that bed then i would best getting a legume one?

 

this is almost like a movie...

 

That sounds grim. I was in asda yesterday and picked up some chicken poo fertilizer. I put it straight back down when I smelt it. There was no way That was going in a trolley with my shopping.

 

It shouldn't smell very much at all. In fact, in its sealed container, unless you are secretly a wolf or something, you shouldn't have been able to smell it at all. If it smelled bad enough that you reject it, I'd say you were right to do so, because there's something wrong with it.

 

It was in a cardboard box, the kind you'd buy seed in. It absolutely stunk. You know the bad smell you get from stilton or similar cheese? Well that's what this smelled like, even through the packet.

 

Probably not stored right. Probably damp had got in at some point, letting it go bad in the box.