Help advice needed

Hi to all.. need all advice possible.. Just moved house from a garden that had soil almost as far as i could dig (and i dug a 4ft deep fish pond) that was also south facing... Life was easy, put somthing that grows in the ground feed and water, and it grew. Now soil varies from 18in to 4in deep with solid clay underneath (have dug 3ft deep and still haven't got to bottom) and it gets worse.. My garden is lower than a 4/5 acre playing field at the rear so no drainage to help me there.... The hole i dug filled with water in 24hrs and after a week of no rain has not dropped 1in... basiclly i'm lost and need all advice i can get... cheers steve

 

Oh help! I am no expert but maybe could you create raised beds and improve the soil in those?. Other than bringing in tonnes of small sized gravel and manure to improve structure and drainage I cannot suggest much unless you search the web for plants that like solid clay and bad drainage. Roses I know will withstand fairly hellish clay as will hostas but it sounds as tho a bog garden could be a good idea! I have no idea how big your garden is but maybe rather than trying to face improving the whole thing, just concerntrate on a small area to begin with and take it in stages. Maybe try and find a local riding stables who will be DELIGHTED to get rid of their byproducts for nothing, much cheaper than going anywhere near garen centre products! If you are prepared to do lots of digging in, I'm sure you will see the huge benefits in time...well if not the soil you'll have a great waistline!

 

No expert me either, but my late Father would have sympathised - lumps of his clay were eagerly snapped up by a local potter and I have the very nice coffee set she made to prove it!

There are several ways you could tackle this - other than of course, spending a fortune on having a drainage system installed. You can either dig it over in autumn (yes, I know it's a bit late for that now) and let the frost help break up the lumps or you can dig in as much organic matter as you can get your hands on, peat, composted bark (not bark chippings), stable manure - with some of the straw still visible - home made compost, leaf mould, leaf litter.

The other 'school of thought' is not to try and dig too deeply, but to mulch, mulch and mulch some more, so that you gradually build up a layer of soil on top of your clay.

The third option is to make some raised beds - although there is a wealth of plants that will grow in clay soil - this site gives just a few examples -http://www.angliangardener.co.uk/green_up_your_fingers/clay_soil.htm

I'm afraid there's no quick fix to gardening on heavy clay, it is going to take time, but it is 'do-able', after several years there wasn't anything my Dad couldn't grow.

 

Thanks for advice. It was the sort of news i DIDN'T want but suspected. This is what i have done so far and what i am intending to do and if i could get any any advice to improve this idea i would be more than grateful. So far i have dug a hole approx 10ft x 6ft about 4ft deep for my pond which i mentioned filled with water i am going to build this up by about 2-3ft as i have a granddaughter plus another on the way and need it raised so they can't fall in. I have dug a drainage ditch from that hole that will be going down to an overflow as i intend to use a liner and need somewhere for the water i force out to go. I have also dug an area out 20ft x 10ft down to the clay that i intend to concrete as a dog run and am saving the removed strangely fairly clay free soil to spread over the rest of the garden plus adding compost woodchip etc (not allowed manure... wife says) I am also going to dig another soakaway along the bottom of the garden (low point of garden) but am not sure about this as although the garden gets really boggy when wet will this soakaway dry it out to much given the low quantity of soil on top.. Is there such a thing as half a soakaway? I am going to save the water and use to water garden. My garden is approx 50 x 30ft.. Am i doing the right thing? i don't know. Perhaps you can tell me.

 

Hi Night Trucker,

One of my plots is on clay so I can sympathise. Sticky & slipery in winter & hard as concrete & cracked in the summer. You can take advantage of the cracks by filling with sand and humus, at least thats one way of breaking it up a bit. My Veg plot is basically one big raised bed with concrete blocks on one side with weep holes, which stops it getting waterlogged in winter (Still sticky though)

Been adding as much organic matter as I can. One good thing about clay is that its usually fertile, being pourous but impermeable the organic matter trapped within it doesn't get washed out, unlike sandy soil.

 

Is this because she thinks it stinks, or for fear of germs?

If it is, you could tell her (truthfully) that it only stinks when its fresh, and the smell quickly dies away, in a matter of days if you let the air get to it. On the germ front, there's nothing in it that is harmful to humans.

In any case, if you get manure that's already rotted, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between that and compost.

 

Am I right in assuming that the water from the playing field is draining onto your property? If that is the case, there is a legal obligation by owners of the playing field to rectify this problem.

 

no not the smell just the idea of manure in the garden

 

not possible i'm afraid as it's a council field and we live in a council property..

 

Night trucker, you'll need to take other half in hand!!!!. While byproducts of cattle and other domestic animals ie dogs !!! is not pleasant, horse is very different. I use tonnes of it every year on soil which was starved and quite clay in places when I moved here. I didn't even dig it in, just shovelled it on and let the worms do the hard work. You would be amazed at the difference and nobody would even know. Many shrubs here were looking very sad but within a couple of doses the Acers were looking like different plants, Camellias have grown like Topsie and the Roses are unrecognisable. Maybe you could import some at dead of night and dig in so "she who must be obeyed" is none the wiser!!!! 7 years on and now I have a totally different soil in my garden.

 

why are all lessons learned in the garden hard (and heavy) one's