Garden Clay Soil?

Question

My daughter has really heavy clay soil and would like to know the best solution to try and overcome it.She loves working in the garden and encourages her under 5 yr olds to plant seeds for the vegatable garden.Is there any easy way to make it more workable please? It does also tend to get water logged in the lawn area.Is the only solution to this to dig up and lay drainage pipes underneath, if so would it be expensive as she is on her own and has to be conscious of expenditure. Thanks for any helpful answers..

Answer 1

Rotary hoe the whole area as deep as the machine will go, then spread liberal amounts of gypsum over the area to help break up the clay. Rotary hoe the area again to mix the gypsum with the clay, level out the soil and resow with lawn seed. Some 3-2-1 (super,lime and molybdenum) fertiliser also from the hardware store, will help feed the lawn as it starts to grow
You could, if funds permit and while the ground is loose from the hoeing, is dig a series of trenches and put convoluted slotted pipe (can be bought in rolls at hardware stores for moderate cost) to drain excess water from the lawn area to a low point where it can drain away. If you choose to do the pipe, make sure that you cover the top of the pipe with a fair thickness of newspaper to stop the soil entering and blocking the pipes before the soil around the pipes has time to harden up enough to stop it blocking the pipes.
While you've got the hoe give the garden area the same treatment with the gypsum, but instead of levelling it out again, heap the earth up into rows wide enough for planting and this will alleviate the water logging problem in the garden as the vegetables will be higher than the surrounding area. Dig in some cow manure before you plant and things will shoot up.
This should do the trick for your daughters lawn. Good luck with it.

Answer 2

First I would lay out exactly where you want your garden to be. Then yes did out the grass. Then I would build a border around the garden, this can be done with plastic landscaping material, bricks wood etc.I would make this at least 2 1/2 ft. tall. You didn't say what type of garden so am guessing flower.Put down plastic bags over the bare clay, you can use landscaping material that is made for this purpose it is better but not as cheap!Now fill the garden with soil, can purchase this from a hardware or grocery store would be the cheapest. Also if you live near a landfill they sell compose in the spring at a very good price, I pay $15. a yard. Now mix this altogether. You will have to add compose and fertilizer yearly but you will get great results. I know all this because I have the same type of land and if you do not put down the plastic, trust me , the clay will come through all your hard work. tried in the vegetable garden for years before I figured out what to do.This method will work great for vegetable garden too but the only thing is if you plan to grow root plants such as carrots the garden has to be deeper, but will work for top growing plants lettuce, tomatoes etc........Good Luck P.S. they only thing with newspaper it routs the first year and alas up comes the clay again.

Answer 3

I also have hard clay. This was only part of the problem though. The clay seemed to have little growing power, even with amendments added and tilled in. This year I am going with a container garden. The containers are buried about 3" into the clay to hold them upright during windy days.

Answer 4

It is tough to work in clay soil, the only good solution that is not to expensive would be to mix in a workable soil such as sand and
compost into the soil when you till it for gardening.



http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pages/g00012.asp

Answer 5

I like box gardens for this. Use boards, railroad ties, bricks, whatever to build up about a foot and fill it in with good top soil. They can be very decorative or very utility and you can add them as you go or make one big one.