Blimey I just read some of this thread!! The title attracted me to it as I took on a plot that is on clay. And basically I still have soil envy but things are improving ;)
I'd say after nearly 2 years I'm starting to make some progress and improvements to the soil structure. The 1st year I grew mainly spuds, a few beans, courgettes and squash and the soil where I had dug the couch and weeds out, cultivated and manured has improved. Its now visibly smaller lumps of clay ;D
This year I also made sure I smothered and covered bare soil with grass clippings, straw, shredded paper and cardboard - it kept the weeds down, it kept much needed moisture in and will be dug in over winter, and will be interesting to see how successful those areas are next year.
I also added blummin tons of manure to a large area where I grew the pumpkins then covered it with weed suppressant - I'll be digging that area over during winter so will see the results with next years spuds.....
I've started doing some trenches with the kitchen veggie peelings so will see how this goes - thinking of growing my beans in that area next year
I grew carrots in crates made up of topsoil from a friends garden and sharp sand - very successfully and have added the contents of the crates to various parts of the plot
At the moment my motto is anything organic I can throw at the plot will bound to help ::) ;D
