clay garden

[Anonymous Poster]

I have a small garden plot, but the soil is mostly clay. I've read a portion of a book where the author claims that worms are the answer to all of mankinds questions. He specifically seems to think that worms can transform poor quality soil into black dirt. How do you get worms to come to your garden? Does anyone have experience with improving the quality of dirt in your garden? Im not a real hardcore gardner, but if i could get better dirt without too much effort I think the tomatoes would appreciate it.

 

[DocHeb]

Clay soil is actually quite fertile, but the structure of the clay particles don't allow good water movement through the soil, causing stagnation and oxygen deprivation ... poor growth.

The key is organic material - whatever you can get (leaves, grass clippings, mushroom compost, composted manure, pine needles, straw, spoiled hay, etc). Just watch out for material that may have viable weed seeds. My favorite is leaves in the fall. I had a landscaper friend dump off several loads and rototilled them into the soil, then left another layer on top. The worms will follow - if you build it they will come.

You can use powdered gypsum with the first rototilling - this causes the clay to remain in small pieces rather than coalescing back into water repellent blobs.

You can also plant "green manure" crops such as annual ryegrass or buckwheat, and rototill them in before they set seed.

Whatever you do, don't use sand to try and improve the drainage - all you'll get is bricks.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

How about ashes from natural stuff, like leaves or wood? My dad tells me worms like coffee grounds. true?

 

[rmorgan]

Depending on what you mean by "small," another option is to build raised beds, either by building a wood frame or laying stone and then filling the space with amended topsoil mix right on top of the clay. Raised beds are easy to work in and keep neat. Of course, if "small" is 1/4 acre, it gets a little dicey. We have clay you can throw pots with, and all of our beds so far consist of topsoil amended with manure and leaf mulch; I till the clay, add the mix, and till it all together. We then try to add 1-2" of chopped leaves, topsoil, or both every year to keep the clay from taking back over.

 

[Mosey]

"ashes from natural stuff, like leaves or wood"

Ashes work great for trees. I've planted trees in old burn piles and they grow very good. I'm not sure if they would work for a garden or not, maybe someone else can help with that question. I have the same problem you do, my garden is all clay. I put leaves and grass clippings on it last year and it did seem to help, so I plan to do it again. I also plan to try the "green manure" idea and plant rye grass. In the mean time, I use lots of Miracle-Gro on the tomatoes and right now I have more than I can eat!

 

[RJohnson]

Yamaben
Your profile doesn't state where you are from, but clay soils usually have a pH above 7. The soil is usually alkaline, at least here in my part of Texas. To that end wood ashes then to raise the pH even more. I have found that gypsum will make the soil more friable but it is a slow process, but it does not raise the pH. The best thing is lots of organic matter. Your worms will just leave if you don't have any organic matter for them to consume.
Growing a cover crop and turning it in is a good way to start if you don't have organic matter to start with. Bag your leaves and turn them in the fall and let them decompose over the winter.
Making clay soils good for growing things is hard work but it can be done, but it won't be accomplished overnight. Unless you dig it all up and replace it with better soil/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. Good luck on your garden.

Randy

 

[TimSullivan]

My wife is the gardener and I am just the free helper. DocHeb is right on the money. We bought property fourteen years ago and the soil was hard clay and rock. Within three years of adding peat moss, compost, manure and tilling each spring, the soil loosened up. When we sold the property last year it was dark rich and fertile.

Now we are starting all over again with a new property with the same soil. We bought a dump truck load of peat moss this spring to till in and dress the surface and have a about twenty yards of cow manure in a pile for use in next few years. I will be able to start using it next spring after it settles down. My wife has several gardens and is always looking to add more so I just decided to get the biggest quantities that I could.

Clay is good to start with, just don’t let it dry out. A good mulch cover is also important, wood chips that have started to decompose are very good. They keep the moisture in the soil and decay to add more fiber to the soil while keeping the weeds out..

The gardens will do well. All you have to do is improve the soil. Have fun!

 

[alco141]

all the folks that reccomended that you add organic materials to your garden and till in are right on the money. you can develope your soil very well with wood chips, leaves, grass clippings, the more you add the more you will speed the soil improvement. if your town trims trees and gives this material away then i would suggest you get all you can haul. put it around your plants in the summer as a mulch, when fall comes bring in more and pile it on and till it in deep. some people call this sheet composting. then plant your green manure crop (anual ryegrass, buckwheat, etc) then early in the spring add more to it and till it in to get ready to plant, after planting is done and the plants are growing when the weather gets hot add more leaves and wood chips to the garden to keep the soil moist.

you will start seeing a lot of earthworms soon as you have provided a smorgasborg for them.

good luck,
alex

 

[DocHeb]

A question to those that have replied so far:

Is there any value to using a sub-soiler or ripper to break up the lower layers of soil? It seems worthwhile in theory, but does it make any difference in practice?

 

[jsnitz]

Here is one that worked for me on a clay subsoil garden in Michigan. In the fall I went around and collected maple leaves where people had bagged them for pickup.

Piled the leaves up and ran over them with the lawn mower to sort of grind them up. Then put them on the garden - about 18" thick. The worms multiplied like crazy and ate the pile down by spring, leaving just a nice mulch.

It took about three years, but the clay was transformed into a rich garden soil and huge yields of veggies, with the worms doing almost all of the work.