What are the best plants to plant in a clay based soil.?

Question

... and what's the best way to improve a clay based soil.

It gets loads of sun in the afternoon. Really scorching and dries out to near brick in summer
Really soaking in winter.

Answer 1

You didn't mention how much sun it got. Anyway some general comments on improving it. Dig in a lot of organic material. If you can get hold of composted manure, it's excellent. Otherwise you can buy bags of non-peat compost. I'm afraid you need a lot of digging and turning over of the clay. SOme sharp sand will also help drainange.
As for plants, if you are not keen on flowers, the best are potatoes. They help break up the clay. If it gets a lot of water and doen;t drain well, you could try irises if you want flowers. Roses are very partial to clay and do very well. If it is well drained, you can plant almost anything as long as you work on it first as suggested.

Answer 2

The good news is that your soil is probably extremely fertile if it's clay based, the bad news you know already. It's either baked hard in the summer or soggy like bad porridge in the winter.

How do you improve it? Well you need to break it up somehow. At the point between baked hard and soggy, dig it over and then dig in some material to improve its structure. You could dig in sharp sand or grit or well rotted manure. You will need copious quantities of either. Personally I'd choose sharp sand or grit in large quantities. You could also consider incorporating agricultural lime as will start a process called flocculation. It's where the particles of clay bond to the particles of lime helping break it up (it's an positive, negative particle attraction thing).
The only thing to beware of is that lime hating plants wont appreciate you adding this. So don't plant Rhododendrons and Azaleas. Most plants love it though and so do worms, which will also help improve the structure.

As for plants. How about...
Shrubs:
Magnolia x soulangeana and lillifolia(tree)
Most Malus species (tree)
Most Viburnums
Pyracantha
Kalmia latifolia
Syringa vulgaris
Spirea japonica
Sambucus racemosa
Weigela


Humulus lupulus (golden hop a vine)

Herbaceous plants:
Ligularia
Aconitum
Aster novi-belgii and Aster novi-anglii
Astrantia major
Campanula
Helenium
Hemerocallis
Hostas
Most Hyacinth bulbs
Monarda (bergamot)
Polemonium
Polygonatum (solomon's seal)
Rodgersias
Pulmonaria (lung wort)

Most herbaceous plants are worth a go on clay soils, but some shrubs can turn up their toes in wet clay.

Beware of digging a hole pouring in some grit and hoping for the best. What can happen is that the surrounding water will drain into your gritty planting hole like a mini soak-away, drowning your new plant.

Clay's not the end of the world. Dig it. Incorporate loads of grit or sharp sand and add rotted manure annually. It can become great soil that will reap fabulous rewards.

Hope that helps and that you have every success!

Answer 3

Choosing which plants to plant in clay soils depends on a lot of things. Hardiness zone, sun exposure, desired look, etc. There are many plants that grow well in heavy clay soils, it just depends on your climate and the environment in which you are placing them.

As far as improving clay soils (works good for sandy soils too), there are three main things that are best: organic material, organic material, and organic material. Adding as much well composted organic material as you can will give your clay soil pore space, helping with drainage, and add needed nutrients. Many plants have difficulty extracting minerals and water from the tightly knit clay soils and will become chlorotic (they can't extract the iron in the clay and it causes the leaves to look yellow).

If you have time, and want to improve your soil over the course of a couple of years, there is another option. I live in USDA Hardiness Zone 6. I created a new vegetable garden, and double dug it, then added a 2" layer of organic material and rototilled it in as deep as I could into each layer. Then this past Fall, I planted Cereal Rye as a cover crop. The roots will penetrate down about 3 feet, helping to break up the clays and improving drainage, and when I'm ready to start my garden this spring, I will rototill in the tops, using it as a "green manure." It also keeps the weeds down. Cereal Rye will slowly over the winter months whenever the temperature is above about 36 degrees F. Crop rotation and the use of cover crops has been used by farmers for many hundreds of years to improve fields during the off months.

Answer 4

Don't add too much sand - you'll make a mess. The best choice is manure made organically. Add a lot and rototill it in good. The first year will not produce as much as following years - as you add more composted manure every year the soil gets better and better! We had a ton of clay in our soil - after a few years of this method, and composting all our leftover plant materials to add to the garden when it's turned to "black gold", we get all kinds of compliments on the size of our plants as well as an abundance of fresh organic veggies! Of course, the weeds love it too, but they're easy to pull up now!

Answer 5

I'm having great success using Gypsum to break up the soil when planting and preparing beds for perennials etc. Definitely use sand and compost as well too if you want.

Most English trees do well in clay type soil. I'm in Australia so I have the heat and the clay. Having great success with Ulmus (Golden elm etc), Quercus (oaks, pin oak etc), Prunus (flowering crabapples, plums etc).

Check out the BBC gardening site you will be surprised what you can grow.

Answer 6

Roses is one plant that's grows good in clay based soil. It needs strong stems and nutrients thats provided in clay based soils. And one of the best ways to improve clay based soils is to use liquid aerify. It opens up the clay and loosens all soils - improves drainage.

Answer 7

Try Hypericum, this is really good in clay soil also check out the BBC gardening website. This will give you lots of ideas.

To improve the soil you need grit, sand and organic matter, anything that breaks up the structure. The one good thing about clay soil is it is high in nutrients (you just need to get it broken down).

Our soil was very bad but after 7 years it is finally getting sorted.

Answer 8

My best advice is get hold of some lime from garden centre and spread it over the garden, this will increase the ph, do it in autum and dig it in over in early spring, cause if you look around the area and see what is growing should give some idea, do not be afraid to knock on doors as most people will only be happy to help or explain what they do or did. Also if this is too much buy some top soil about enough to cover at least 6 inches thick.

Answer 9

I agree with what the others said about improving the soil and mulching. I would like to add the plants I have had some luck growing in clayey soil (Ft. Worth, Tx. area): all the salvias seem to do well, they are drought tolerant, have a long blooming season, and hummingbirds love them; daylilies, daisies, red yucca, thyme, rosemary, catmint, and other herbs grow well; crape myrtles, oleander, butterfly bushes; redbuds make great small trees. Hope this helps. Good luck with your gardening.

Answer 10

Roses grow well in clay soil even camelias, hebe, iris,there are lots of plants that will grow in clay try and put plenty of compost and manure, if you dig it over now the frost will help break it down and in t he spring put manure sand and compost and fork it in, every year I empty my pots on to the top and in a couple of years you will be surprised at the difference .