Which soil improver?

In 2020, when I took off the lawn, I added bags of manure to our clay soil into the bed that is now the flower bed because this is in sunshine during the summer months. The soil was typical for Oxford clay still sticky, but so far okay.
After all the rain this winter, I realise now in these dry condition that the top of the soil is like grey concrete and starts to crack on the top and breaking it apart leads to grey like little canon balls.
Originally, after the awful drought in 2022, I had planned to have a new path system in my garden so that each bed is a max of 1 meter wide and I can do something without putting a foot on the soil.
That didn't work out for various reasons and I can't do anything since my accident. The earliest time I'm allowed will be September when the 12 months waiting time for broken bones is over.
I'm a complete novice what soil improving concerns and can only remember the comments in the GW forum, "don't put sand on clay".

I wonder if I could in the current situation, April 2024, put mushroom compost or leaf compost just on top of it and "fork" it in.
What should I use in Autumn, when I will be creating smaller beds?

Many thanks in advance.

 

Adding organic matter is always the best way , and anything will help. Sand isn't helpful in most situations - simply because if it's the wrong kind, it makes it worse, not better. In a large area, even the right kind isn't terribly helpful anyway, as it gradually disappears unless you're constantly adding tons of it - same as grit.
Good quality leaf mould is excellent - but unless you already have it, that's a problem. I doubt you can buy it, but it's not something I've ever done, so it may be possible to buy it somewhere.
In my first proper garden, I used a product called 6X, which I hadn't seen for a long time, but noticed it online recently. It's basically chicken manure in a granular form. It's very good for clay.
I use rotted manure mainly for breaking up heavy clay, plus spent compost from the previous year's annuals, and pea gravel is also very useful. Composted bark can also be useful.
Our soil never really dries out to any extent though, so it's a slightly different problem here, and the main reason for creating raised beds. In drier conditions, the organic matter helps retain moisture in long dry spells, and helps drainage in prolonged wet weather.

 

Read up on no dig. I switched a few years ago and wish I'd done it when I first started gardening. All you do is put organic matter on top of whatever bed you have, be it flowers or veg or fruit trees etc. Then just leave it and top it up once a year by about an inch. It improves soil life over time which mixes it in naturally so no forking needed, retains moisture much better, you can walk on beds most of the year as they are firm and weed pressure is greatly reduced as you aren't bringing up countless weed seeds every time you dig. Weeding is very easy with a hoe, as no matter what you do there will always be new weeds springing up from blown in or dropped seeds

If you are making new beds on top of lawn or pasture you use either a lot more compost/well rotted manure(6 inches) or some sort of weed barrier like cardboard and a couple of inches of compost. Use wood chip for paths. I also use woodchip as the mulch around my fruit bushes and trees as I can't produce enough compost for everything and don't like buying it in, it works well for that

I've also got clay and it's really great assuming you don't get waterlogged. Loads of nutrients and water holding capacity. Just don't make problems for yourself by digging it

 

Many thanks @fairygirl I'm just looking for X6 (not the beer from Wadworth Brewery :-). The only place I could buy it is from Gloucestershire, but my car is too small and not made for that.
New Leaf Compost deliver Compost and Soil Conditioner Suppliers. Reputation looks like they are used from professionals.

 

@Hanglow That was my idea too, but when I saw the part of "no dig" in the GW episode last Friday, the lady admitted that it doesn't work out with perennials. They have to come into the soil.
Additionally, my garden doesn't allow to top up endlessly.
I'm currently looking for a product that helps me during the summer this year and another one or the same that I can use in Autumn after making the change to the beds.

 

I've never had to deal with clay soil but know a little about no dig and I don't see why it wouldn't work for perennials (I've not seen the GW episode). It is essentially just mulching the ground and leaving it as undisturbed as possible. The organic material breaks down over time or is incorporated into the soil, so the level of the ground doesn't really change much unless you are adding a really thick layer. The recommended amount of compost added per year to a veg bed is only 1 inch and many of us add a much thicker mulch layer.

The only downside with this approach for clay may be that it's going to take a long time to change the soil because it's not a huge amount of organic material going on. I wonder if you have space for a cover crop that could help break up the soil a little and encorporated the organics easier. It would be better done in the autumn unless you want to grow some potatoes, which are excellent soil breakers.

 

I grow perennials, and although I need to use raised beds quite often [depends on the type of plant] it's perfectly possible to grow them in improved clay. The raised beds make it easier to combat the rainfall we get here, but it means I can adapt the soil mix so that it doesn't dry out excessively in longer drier spells either.
In an existing bed, it will take a while for the organic matter to work well, for the reasons already given, but it'll also come down to the choices of plants unless you create specific beds from scratch for them.

I meant to say - I don't dig either, and never really have, I just add material. If you could see what comes out of the ground here, you'd understand why!

 

Thanks @Thevictorian. I have only flower plants, I don't do any vegetables in the garden.
I do more or less the same what no dig gardeners do with perennials: I make a little hole and the plant comes into the ground. The last time I had a dig in the garden was when I applied farm manure to the cleared up flower bed in winter 2020 to 2021, and when I planted 2 trees. The annuals have the purpose to break down the clay and to add to the soil by rotting. I only enter the soil when I clear the bed in March and when I plant in April and May.
If I hadn't had the collarbone broken in September, I would have created thes little paths system where I can enter the ground without being on the actual part for the flowers.
I will do that in Autumn this year.
@fairygirl I got X6 Fertiliser at our favourite garden centre in Bampton. I applied almost 1 bag. I didn't water it yesterday, because it should rain for hours today so the forecast.
I have also ordered 8 bags of the multi-purpose compost from that New Leaf Company. Once I have mulched the bed, I will add bark chippings on top.

 

I hope that helps a bit @simone_in_wiltshire . As I said, I used it on another plot, which hadn't really been cultivated, and it did make a difference. I knew very little about improving soil at the time, and the internet wasn't really 'a thing' back then, so I must have got it through G's World mag, or similar. I hadn't seen it advertised when I got this house, but I had access to plenty of well rotted manure, so I didn't think of trying to find it.
Hope your collarbone is well on the mend now. It's not until we have an injury that incapacitates us that we realise how much we take it all for granted is it? Ordinary things become very difficult.

 

There is confusion afoot!
No- dig is a philosophy, not a doctrine.
It means you do not dig as in turning over/up, the soil.
Thereby not dislocating/killing the soil organisms/worms etc
Also not exposing the seed bank that is your soil. Thus not germinating eons of seeds from weeds past.
No dig does not mean never use a spade, or trowel to plant new plants. If you do bring up (sub)soil, then if you have particular concerns, remove it from the bed and replace with soil/compost of known provinance. Or check around new plantings after a few weeks and remove new weeds while they are small.
The downside is that you need more compost/organic material/mulch than your plot will produce. You will need to import something, the choice is yours; use what you can source locally; price is a consideration ,as is the wider 'carbon footprint' of transport.
Remember, you need to feed the soil (organisms) ,not the plants.

 

Completely agree with Infradig, no dig is always polarised and it's better to think of it as minimal disturbance. It doesn't mean you can't touch the soil just that the natural stratification and microbial cross section is healthier when undisturbed.
When I mentioned vegetables it was as an example of how no dig encorporates new organic matter into the soil. It is exactly the same process with perennials, just like mulching. It's major downside in the situation you face is that you may need a lot of organic material to help improve the soil, which would either take years of adding a small amount, or a very thick layer at the start which would harm your perennials if it covered them.

It sounds like you have formulated a plan for the autumn so I wish you good luck and a speedy recovery.

 

Apart from the fact that the soil isn’t that good because it was farmland, I also have neighbour’s cherry tree to consider. I read in article that cherry tree roots are quite demanding and don’t go deep into the ground.

 

Supposing that you have a 'new-build' on former agricultural land; which could be of at least four grades, its likely that in the process of development, the contractor stripped the topsoil, and flogged it. Its what they do. They keep back only sufficient to bury debris and leave a 'dusting' to carry turf.
You will need to build up/re-create a top strata by the addition of plentiful organic material over a number of years. Nature takes a hundred years to create a centimetre of soil.
Regarding the neighbours tree; they have no right to allow/permit incursion of its roots across the boundary; you are entitled to cut them if they do.

 

@infradig The area was built in the 50’s but the soil is clay in its best. No wonder that the ancient tribes moved to Wiltshire because they could build their houses here. Where we live is just farmland around us.
I think tht the amount of rain we had last winter has simply caused too much damage to the soil.
I will definitely continue but have to accept limitations and will look further for a planting scheme that works. Actually, I am happy with my old bed, which looks good after many try&fail since 2016. Maybe I have to give up flowers in that extend in the sunny side of the garden.

 

It does take a bit of time to improve clay soil @simone_in_wiltshire , but it also depends on whether there's been any kind of cultivation on the site or not. It's always easier if there's been some kind of 'growing' going on.
I've had several properties, all with varying amounts of 'gardening' having been done on them, but all on clay. In this site, the area that had just been compacted grass [the whole boundary] it became quite easy to plant into after stripping off the turf and adding loads of manure and compost. That border is now in very good condition, but don't forget that once you have plants in there, the rain doesn't have quite such an impact - especially if you have shrubs or trees. The moisture gets more readily taken up by woody plants. That makes it easier, and you won't tend to get the same amount of winter waterlogging because the area isn't bare.
All my borders that are directly in the ground have a good amount of woody shrubs or trees, simply to counteract that rainfall. It's a normal state for us here through winters.
It's why I have raised beds though - if I want blousier perennials, they need help in terms of drainage, and I can still lose some.