What do you do with clay soil?

Question

What is the best thing to do with a plant garden that has heavy clay soil?

My husband brought compost home one year but it just seemed to kill off most of the plants...so don't want that...I did add a few bags of topsol this spring and planted all new plants with bagged topsoil...but still my plants don't seem to grow as fast as my mom's whose soil is a lot more sandy in her parts. Her plants are double mine.

What would work best to make my plants thrive? All my rhodedendrums that I plant on one side of the garden all die off too...really weird..it gets a good half day of sun so I don't get it...would a rainspout nearby that side of the house have some bearing on that?

Oh and I've added the Miracle Grow stuff as directed all Spring too...so I don't know.

Answer 1

You'll have to amend it. I'm from Oklahoma and we have clay running out our bums. Anyhow, this is my recipe for getting beautiful soil out of clay soil. Till you area and add sand, compost, manure, and grass clippings then till again. Cover with mulch or hay and water frequently. By next season you will notice a dramatic difference. You can go ahead and plant in it this season just keep adding things to the bed like grass clippings, compost, fallen leaves and work it into the soil a bit. Every year your soil will get better and better.

Answer 2

What do I do with it?? I amend it. Clay has very fine particle makeup and it needs to have organic matter incorporated into it. For new beds, I use potting mix.. and not the cheap dollar a bag stuff.. I buy growing mix and till it into the soil. The growing mix has a number of components in it that will benefit the plants including fertilizers, micronutrients and other ingredients as well as the organic content.

I also add garden gypsum. Gypsum helps (on a molecular level) break up clay. I add gypsum and organic matter (compost or sphagnum peat or bark) to my beds every year.

Answer 3

Clay is thick and holds moisture and not air. To be able to use it, you will need to add soil amendments to it. This will break up the clay and allow adequate drainage. It takes a lot of amendment to break it up. I tried tilling in sand and got a sticky mess. I dug my holes much larger than needed for each plant and added potting soil for the roots to grow in. This didn't work for my tomatoes so I planted in containers and set them in the garden area.

Answer 4

The best way to go about this is to till up the clay, then let it dry out and start adding sand liberal amounts and then retill.. This is a ongoing process, in a couple of seasons you should have decent soil..Bub Mpls