Amending Clay Soil
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Swifter
Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor
Posted: May-12-2009 at 4:29pm
Hi everyone,
New here; I've eagerly read lots of past posts. There's some real expertise on this forum!
I'm wondering what y'all do to amend clay-ey soils. All these heavy rains and periodic sun have created a crust on my double-dug beds, with some cracks here and there. My plan is to spread 1-2 inches of manure compost and work it in slightly with a fork. I was planning to spread straw, but I read that that takes down soil temperature too much for plants to thrive. I still will probably spread straw later in summer, when everything's well established (it worked well last year). Any thoughts/suggestions?
Thanks!
C.S.
JeanneK
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posted: May-12-2009 at 8:44pm
Welcome to Rainyside, Swifter!
The best way to improve a clay soil is to top dress with organic matter, such as compost, shredded leaves etc. and let the worms work it in for you but admittedly that is a slower process. It can take years to get a nice, loamy soil.
Working in manure compost and regular compost is good for now. I would use the straw on top of areas you are not planting. This will help keep the weeds down. You could also put down bark mulch on ornamental beds.
For fall, I would put down coarse compost and let the worms work it in all winter.
Good luck!
Jeanne
gary
Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor
Posted: May-13-2009 at 6:14am
Swifter,
Welcome to Rainyside. The best discussion of growing vegetables on our clay soils I know of is in Steve Solomon's Growing Vegetables - West of the Cascades, pp. 60-64 5th & 6th editions.
Steve gives a full discussion to developing a clay soil into a usable growing medium two different ways. After my family fought clay soils for 44 years on my mother's garden, I went to his better way for her; treat the clay as a subsoil and import sandy loam.
I agree with all the points he makes in the discussion except using dolomite lime as half of his lime application. Clay soils are 'heavy' because they are high in magnesium. They don't need more of this mineral that "binds" the soil together.
Gary
Swifter
Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor
Posted: May-15-2009 at 1:02pm
Thanks to both of you--I'll be putting down compost this weekend. Unfortunately, I'm a renter and I haven't built up any sort of compost, so I'll have to buy it. I've been reading Solomon, but I hadn't found that section--thanks, Gary! Good to know about the dolomite, too.
C.S.
Gardening for the Homebrewer: Grow and Process Plants for Making Beer, Wine, Gruit, Cider, Perry, and More
By co-authors Debbie Teashon (Rainy Side Gardeners) and Wendy Tweton