Topic: Gardening on clay soil - advice please

[Mrs Ava]

My garden is thick london clay which means in the summer the lawn cracks and in the winter it is like a swamp and I can hear water trickling through it.  However, every year I mulch with compost and everytime I dig anything, I encorporate as much compost and leaf mould as I have.  Bulbs are the hardest in the garden.  Daffs seem to do okay, but they are planted on a thick layer of grit.  Fritiliarias take one look at my garden and rot!  Now, anything I worry about starts life in a pot to stand on the deck.  Hostas do great so long as they are in dappled shade but astilbes really struggle as it is so dry in the summer.  I have now created a bog garden so they can thrive.  Shrubs seems to do really really well in our soil, photinia, pyracantha, lonicera, buddlia, and anything else you can think of ending in a  ;D.  We also have bamboos, and they love the wet ground and grow like the clappers.  Day lillies love it also.  I have only ever gardened on clay, so am used to it. 

[manicscousers]

we've got a buddlia and a 3 potentillas so there's another a that likes clay  :)

[ACE]

Azalias, rhodies, camelias, all love clay, There are loads of minature varieties about now. We had to plant up a bed made from tractor loads of wet clay on a site, planted 400 azalias, 300 rhodies and a 600m long border of francoa. Never lost one of them

[sweet-pea]

I'm so glad I posted my question on the forum, everyone's suggestions are great, especially since a lot of them are things I was hoping to include in the design :-)  Really looking forward to designing the garden now rather than dreading trying to find things that will grow there!

SP xx

[Robert_Brenchley]

There are plenty of things that flourish on clay, as has been said, and as for things that don't, had you thought of growing the in containers?

[sweet-pea]

Thanks Robert.  Yes.  She want's a veg garden, so I'm planning to make that raised beds.  And probably use a lot of containers for the area near the house, with gravel, I like the idea of creating an area with an oriental feel to it. For the rest of the garden I'm thinking of creating a woodland/wildlife friendly space, and as it seems that shrubs are the way to go, I think it will be perfect.  and she already has a small pond, so I'm going to add a bog garden to it. 

[fluffygrue]

She want's a veg garden, so I'm planning to make that raised beds.  And probably use a lot of containers for the area near the house, with gravel, I like the idea of creating an area with an oriental feel to it. For the rest of the garden I'm thinking of creating a woodland/wildlife friendly space, and as it seems that shrubs are the way to go, I think it will be perfect.  and she already has a small pond, so I'm going to add a bog garden to it. 

Sounds pretty much how our garden was planned. :)

If she wants a veg garden, then sprouts are meant to love clay. I find camellias work quite well in oriental-style gardens, as do things like Ophiophogon (black grass). And harts tongue ferns. And did I mention Bleeding Heart? Bog-garden-wise, siberian or flag irises, drumstick primulas. Arums.

The only group of plants I really have trouble with are alpines and carrots. (But even then, aubretia manages and snow-in-summer romps, so it's still worth a try.)