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Post by Leenstar on Mar 4, 2012 15:32:29 GMT -5
I have dense clay soil. I have dug down almost 2 feet down in each of my garden bed and replaced the clay with better dark soil from around the yard and with a mix of finished and unfinished compost.
Now I have a pile of clay with which to deal.
In the fall I tried mixing some clay into my leaf mold. It looks like the leaf mold is more soil-like as a result but this was hardly a controlled study.
I think I will slowly add the clay into the leaf mold in the compost bins.
Anyone else have experience doing something like this?
I had also thought to dry it out powder it and try to spread the powder over the lawn and other beds to dilute it.
Anyone else have a solution to extra clay laying about? I don't plan to throw any pots out of it...
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Post by raymondo on Mar 4, 2012 15:46:19 GMT -5
Keep mixing in organic matter, , like you're doing with leaf mould, and it will develop better structure. That's a rather laborious task though. I have mounds of clay too onto which I'm emptying the lawnmower catcher contents. I'll try turning it over in winter. I'm hoping worms are at work!
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Post by ottawagardener on Mar 4, 2012 17:36:58 GMT -5
Line a pond? I think your plan of adding it slowly to organic matter: compost, leaf mould is good.
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Post by traab on Mar 4, 2012 20:17:12 GMT -5
As you know clay holds a lot of nutrients between the platelets and in water on its great surface area. Your upper gardens of sand would benefit from mixing in clay in small amounts. Understand sand and clay can make bricks in the wrong proportions but a small amount of clay could help out with the sand. Decades ago our sand was improved by clay and manures. We spread the clay less than a quarter inch over lawns and garden.
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 4, 2012 20:49:51 GMT -5
Well, you could mix it with blood and straw and make bricks... Need a greenhouse? Here's your half walls. What about a beehive oven. Leo says mix it with lemon and make mud pie? (He was 6 when he did this). Clay is a wonderful nutrient source. Have you considered adding charcoal, bone char, and compost to make make Terra Preta? www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXMUmby8PpU |
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Post by olddog on Mar 4, 2012 21:52:56 GMT -5
wow, wish I had your rich clay soil, but when I did live where I had clay soil, I did add organic matter and that really helped, as everyone here has said.
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Post by johninfla on Mar 6, 2012 13:50:41 GMT -5
Everyone has had good suggestions....I just wanted to share what my Dad was told when he went to Ohio State, back in the 40's. "Sand on clay....money thrown away. Clay on sand...money in the hand." I've always wanted to have enough clay to make a difference in my soil....it's just about pure sand.
John
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Post by babyboy on Mar 16, 2012 23:03:35 GMT -5
Now I have a pile of clay with which to deal. In the fall I tried mixing some clay into my leaf mold. It looks like the leaf mold is more soil-like as a result but this was hardly a controlled study. I think I will slowly add the clay into the leaf mold in the compost bins. Anyone else have experience doing something like this? I had also thought to dry it out powder it and try to spread the powder over the lawn and other beds to dilute it. Anyone else have a solution to extra clay laying about? I don't plan to throw any pots out of it... As a potter I have some experience with clay. Your are best to let it dry and then break it up as fine as you can manage. Then add it along with old compost and water into a container and turn it into a slurry. This will of course be done in batches. This slurry can easily be added to the leaf mold compost. This is much more effective than just adding dry clay to a compost pile. The clay slurry will coat the compost material and "wet" it better than just water. This is similar to what Sir Albert Howard did with urine eath in making compost at Indore, India. Earth was put on the stable floor to capture the urine from the oxen. Periodically the earth was replaced and the old earth was dried and then made into a slurry when needed. For historical accuracy, you could periodically go out and pee on your clay pile. The clay CEC will capture a lot of nutrients. |
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edwin
gardener
Posts: 141
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Post by edwin on Mar 20, 2012 19:24:39 GMT -5
Sand on clay....money thrown away. ;D That's us. |
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Post by olddog on Mar 20, 2012 20:31:14 GMT -5
sand on clay?, Never heard it before, but I love that old saying, but I will tell you in where it worked pretty well (for 2 growing seasons). The clay was actual pottery clay, the soil was that bad, and a creek ran through it all winter, and into the spring, so that added to the drainage problem. Made a slight raised bed with rock and junk wood sides and just piled the sand on top, into the bed that was formed, but did not mix it in. Wow, it grew a great garden, kind of solved the drainage, waterlogged situation, and at the same time, the plants could access the clay for nutrients, but the crown and upper roots, part of them were in the sand, kind of a desperate solution for a waterlogged back yard. Not sure what happened long-term. Hopefully, someone else added lots of compost over time so concrete was not formed!
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 20, 2012 21:13:00 GMT -5
Sand on clay? Hmmm. Last time I did that was to build a spring... We had a ravine about 6 feet deep and a hundred feet long in a field. I built a clay dike across the bottom of ravine, (with a spring pipe going through the dike), and then filled the ravine with sand. It made a great spring, running for a month after any rainstorm.
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Post by paquebot on Mar 20, 2012 22:39:25 GMT -5
15% sand and 10% carbon-based organic matter does wonders to heavy soils. Then add 10% organic matter annually after that. Clay loam is considered good soil and would have 30% sand. Pure loam would have 40% sand.
Martin
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Post by s2man on Jul 29, 2012 15:28:22 GMT -5
Then add 10% organic matter annually after that.Martin 10% of what, Martin? The top foot of soil, or all the way to bedrock? Edit: I read a book by an organic, no-till market grower in the U.K. who adds 2" of compost per year. That's 16% of the top foot. |
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Post by paquebot on Jul 29, 2012 23:41:43 GMT -5
If you till 8" deep, the depth of a normal spade, 10% is just over an inch. Using that, 2" would figure out to around 16% per foot. No need to go any deeper but it can be done if you have a trenching shovel or deep spading fork. And, I did not specify compost but rather organic matter. Compost, in this case, would be considered a fertilizer amendment rather than a soil amendment. The 10% organic matter, combined with initial 15% sand, is to create humus which will help to keep the soil friable. Feeding the plants is a separate factor. In such case, 2" of compost annually would supply sufficient nutrients to plants plus attend to the soil maintenance.
Martin
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