Topic: Clay soil - what can I plant in it?

[beckydore]

I am starting to clear my second plot (which is in much better condition than the first!)

The ground is quite clay-like. Would appreciate some ideas of things to plant which love clay / can stand clay / will help to reduce the clay-like characteristic.

Some of the beds have had compost dug in and they are good but I’d like to try and fix the rest.

I have already got LOADS of potatoes being put into my first plot (see other post re couch grass).

Becky

[Vortex]

This is a post I made on UK allotments about a month ago in regard to lcay soils.
 

Unfortunately there are no quick fixes for heavy clay soils and certainly no cheap ones. There are a number of things you can do but in the short term you're going to have to wait for your plot to dry out.

There are a number of things you can do
1) import as much top soil as you need and overlay the clay.
2) import several tons of sharp sand and dig it in
3) every year for the next 20 years incoporate several tons of manure/mushroom compost every year.
4) construct raised beds

4 is the fastest solution and in a number of ways the easiest and most beneficial.
Divide the plot into a number of 4ft wide by 10,12,16,20,30 (your choice) beds with 18" paths all around them. Lower the soil on the paths and use this to raise the height of the beds - they want to be 8-10" above path height. Incorporate sand/manure/mushroom compost/leaf mold into the beds as you create them.
This will give you beds that are freer draining, don't saturate, warm up faster but still allow your crops to tap the underlying water table in the deeper clay layer.

One of my plots is on heavy clay, although it has been well worked in the past, it hadn't for the 3 years prior to me taking it on. I went down today to turn in the manure and leaf mold I'd applied to the beds a month ago/in the autumn. Of the plots on site only two were workable - and both of these are raised beds. I didn't even attempt to tackle the bed I'm currently in the process of making it would just have been too wet and heavy. Whilst I could turn the beds I couldn't work them properly but even being able to turn them meant I could get on. They'll be dry enough by the end of the week, if we don't have any more rain, for me to be able to rake level.

As to what you can grow, Alliums (provide the soil doesn't saturate and you haven't got white rot), Sweetcorn, Squashes, Brassicas. More or less anything except roots without any soil improvement.

[manicscousers]

green manure, keeps the weeds down and you can dig it in to improve the soil, not a crop as such but does help   :)

[ninnyscrops]

I'm on my fourth season with heavy clay, I alternate between horse and cattle manure each year and add lots of spent hops as a mulch in the summer, had good crops with almost all that I've planted, onions, garlic, potatoes and beans especially.  With the root crops I cheat and push a spade in pull it back and forth to form a "v" trench and fill with compost.

[PurpleHeather]

www.complete-gardens.co.uk/online/online-gardening-plant-solutions-

The above link shows lots of shrubs which are happy in clay soil, Roses it seems like it too.

We had a plot on our site which was clay and we got a farmer to dump 6 feet of fresh manure on the lot.

Left it for one year then planted lots of things like marrows which loved the richness. We also put in surplus plants, rather than waste them. I can't recall now what else did well but the courgettes/marrows did good. I think Calibrese and potatoes were fine too

The third year the lot had turned into good soil and we let it out and it out. It is an excellent plot now two years after all that.

[davee52uk]

We have heavy clay here in Warwickshire. There used to be a brickworks next to the allotments.

I can grow most stuff but have problems with carrots. The soil is great in that it retains water, so that even in a drought once the plants have "got the feet in" they can grow down to water below.

It's very difficult to dig etc in Winter when it gets very heavy and in a dry Summer where the top gets rock hard.

Fruit seems to grow very well, particularly plums and damsons.

[saddad]

Very fertile soil once you have got it going....
 ::)

[Deb P]

I could have made some pots with the clay I dug out of parts of my plot when I took it over! I used calcified seaweed as a claybreaker, and mushroom compost to reduce the acidity.

 Pumpkins and squash will usually do well if you prepare a nice planting hole for them, and will cover the ground well. Brassicas like firm soil, but if the clay you have hasn't been dug for a while the chances are it's quite acidic which they would not like, so would need liming. Mulching with anything you can get hold of will help stop your clay drying out as much in the summer, and as others have said, anything you can dig in or mulch it with in the autumn will help you win the battle! ;D