Living in tn with loamish clay soil and chunky rocks. All I can say is mulch, mulch, mulch. If your not using a raised bed. Sheet mulch with cardboard and add 3 to 4 inches of compost to the top. Adding a layer of lighter mulch like leaves to the top of that. After a few years your soil beneath will improve significantly.
@@bleb87 I use wood chip mulch in my walkways and whatever I can find in my planting areas. Usually straw or animal bedding but its important to use plenty or cardboard under everything, not allowing any spaces for the grass to grow through. You'll need to keep adding mulch every couple years as needed too especially if your not starting with a layer that's atleast 6 inches deep or so. And start with a new layer of cardboard as well if you have alot of weeds poking through. It takes some maintenance unfortunately I've not found an easy fix.
I live in Uganda and am trying to garden/farm but am struggling mightily with rock hard orange clay soil. It is so dense the locals make brick and tiles from it and use to build their houses. This combined with lots of year round rain, and the lack of any type of gardening tools or supplies has made our time here a challenge. We bought 50 dump truck loads of cow manure and 50 of river hyacinth, and have been making as much compost as we can, and have been trying to add the compost to the soil. We finally are to the point we can grow leafy vegetables like lettuce, cabbage, spinach, amaranth and so forth, but are struggling to get any fruiting type vegetables to grow. Squash, cucumber, pumpkin and zucchini simply come up as puny sickly plants with small leaves, and they die before they fruit. So, as we continue to ammend the soil with compost, I am interested in trying to amend with lime as you suggest, as lime is available here. In your video, you did not mention how much lime to use, or how to incorporated it into the soil. Can you offer me any suggestions?
Here is what I found online: It takes 20 to 50 pounds (9-23 k.) of ground limestone per 1,000 square feet (93 m²) to correct a mildly acidic lawn. Strongly acidic or heavy clay soil may need as much as 100 pounds (46 k.).
Clay soil is most likely already alkaline ....you should test your soil for PH before you assume you need lime ....or you'll make it worse. If you have alkaline soil you add elemental sulphur to acidify it. Test your soil properly don't guess
Idea: use clay bricks to build raised beds and fill with compost! And good for you to take on such harsh conditions. Wow. Gardening will get more fun as plants get happier and produce more. Our slimy-gray clay soil is impossible but I too am clubbing away at it. It all takes SO much time -- but I've never been happier! Plus, I've seen online some who insist clay is alkaline, some say it's acidic. The farmers around here use lime so I'm assuming local clay is the former.
In Northern Ontario here ... Thank you for the advice on clay soil. I've been gardening for over 20 years and your tips are awesome. Please continue providing us with great information for cold climate gardening.
THANK YOU! ALL OF YOU for the amount of work you’re doing on the back end to support/get the word out about the channel. YOU HAVE NO idea how much this has changed the channels response. I could not do any of this without you guys and i hope you truly understand that. Make sure to grab your planners! etsy.me/3dZ4ncs
My understanding is that gypsum only works when you have soil that is high in sodium with a high pH. Otherwise gypsum is a waste of time. In the states the soils have been mapped extensively. Soil maps are easy to access and if you are unable to do so the local agricultural extension service can tell you exactly what soil type you have. No need to guess. IMO randomly adding lime is a recipe for disaster unless you have done a soil test that generates the specific amount of lime to use. As the comments show there are a billion opinions on what works best on clay. Over the years I have found a combination of compost along with humic acid works best for me. The key is to always have something growing in the soil and if you absolutely can’t then a really good mulch layer is important. Never let soil sit totally bare
I have read that you can plant daikon radishes. These radishes are huge and if you leave them to rot in the clay they will add nutrients as well. (Just cut the top matter off)
Yep. I found gray clay under the builder's backfill in my backyard. We also had a ton of rocks in the soil as well. So I built raised beds on top of everything. They're super deep because we have a sloped backyard so I fill the bottom of the beds with logs and sticks/woodchips and then put soil on the top 16 inches. The plants have a lot of soil to dig deep into and they seem pretty happy. Have to constantly fill the beds with more compost throughout the year though because of shrinkage.
Have clay soil, sort of live in a swampy area. Nothing would grow in my yard, even different grasses struggled. Had to dig out drainage trenches! Could probably make pottery out of my soil. I built tall raised beds last year and filled it hugelkultur style. Had really good success last year with spinach and peas. Let's hope for another successful growing season!👩🌾🥰
Compost, mulch, biochar and compost tea from BoogieBrew has made a great improvement in my clay soil. My fruit trees and vegetable garden is thriving. I can now drive a shovel a good 2 feet, before an inch only. Let the microorganisms in the compost tea do the work for you, they soften that soil for you. Good luck! It is possible to have a thriving garden in clay soil!
Very helpful, thank you! I live in North Carolina (USA) and we have horrible clay soil that is incredibly compacted that even augers have a difficult time getting through. Going to try your recommendations for our garden patch!
Just subscribed because I love Soil SAVE/SOIL Please! Since I was in my early 20's, I understood how soil is so important ti mankind. Thank you for sharing what we can all do. Carry on...
Gypsum works for a season only. Lime alters pH too much. Add sand to the mix and you will end up with concrete soil if it is baked in Summer. Better to grow a cover crop, terminate by covering and then mulch with compost.
Folks in town around here have 2" of top soil followed by a green /gray clay layer. I have done some custom tilling and like adding lime because it is cheap here I take the lime as deep as their pocket books will let me and then till a manure based compost into the top 4". I have 24 inches of silt loam with 24 percent organic matter, sooooo that's about it. Thanks for the post.
Great video, I learned a lot. ! I have an organic homestead on a stream, which has super silty soil. We utilized option 3 and it did slow down our crops initially, but by the next season the soil was noticeably less compact. Now we hot compost and build up the soil in rows
I have a dark fertile clay and I am double digging the beds and staying in ground. I’m adding compost or compost + top soil into the beds as I double dig to break up the soil, then adding some high quality bagged soil to the top. Here’s hoping.
Last spring, I started trench composting like it was going out of style! It did wonders to a heavily compacted, washed out, lacking nutrients patch of heavy clay! I planted tomatoes, in June, not expecting anything. They did very well! At the end of the season, I cut them to the ground, but left the roots undisturbed. Planted cover crops. Sadly, a little too late. Next fall, I'll plant them much earlier.
WE ALL NEED TO STAY FOCUSED! WE ARE NOW PERHAPS, NEXT TO, OR, CLOSE TO, THE LAST HUMANS ON THIS PLANET. THAT MAY SOUND TOO BRUTAL. I SAY...........LEARN~~~~~~~LEARN..............
Thank you so much! I’m getting started tomorrow on this process. Your the 1st one that explained my clay soil issue & cure, clearly & succinctly! So ty!👍
Hi Ashley, I'm from Newfoundland. Thank you for all the wonderful information. I've got red clay soil in my flower garden, and I'm going to try the things you are saying. Im a subscriber of yours . Thanks again.
I heard you briefly mention taproot plants. I am going to plant a bunch of tall sunflowers just to try to break up the soil on deeper level a bit more without having to till. We’ll see.
You have been very beneficial, thank you. I am trying other methods but you have given me some other ideas a product such as lying that I have here to add also thanks a bunch keep up the good work you’re doing great thumbs up.😊
Arizona here, about a 1/2 meter aka 18 inches we have a layer of caliche, aka calcium carbonate, a hole that is 20 L aka 5 gal. When filled with water it takes approx 12 hrs to drain. What has really helped was tilling in alfafa pellets, wood chips and cover cropped with peas, oats, buckwheat, flax, and then tilled it in, now I plant Diakon radish, heavy seeded, 1 plant per 10 cm aka 4", and now it is draining water, and loaded with earthworms, I still cover crop and rotate planting areas. The PH has dropped from 8.3 to high 7s, now cover croppings are mostly a big mix to attract beneficial insects. I missed the soil analysis recommendation. I did one so know what to target as amending. Used a huge amount of Tigersol very early on.
@@GardeningInCanada wish I could send you some calcium, Dad used to burn lime in the Fraser Valley pre WW2 to help with the acidic souls and it's effect on plant nutrition that had negative effects on the dairy industry, so PH is very critical.
Clay,but 5 years of manure,leaves and grass clipping and leaf compose, My also now into no dig, Believe in future stating cover crops and clover for my walk ways as I've got clover seads and buckwheat for after summer harvest.
Yes for somethings Last season first for no tilt ,Nice tomatoes after knats nearly distory the half of seedlings that didn't die. Cold temperatures I believe stunted my peppers. The potatoes did far.,Squash bugs for he'll like I've never seen ever! 3 pickings of green beans and no poisoning and almost bug free. But we plant more than we need to have extras. Next season is said to get better in the no tilt system, Planning 34 type of tomatoes and 9 bell peppers again looking for better vegetables yeah 3 plus times any other 50 years ago ,I'm 70 figure some day I might have to cut back to only on last row of garden trying to figure what I'll plant my last season.
I garden in highly compacted, lifeless clay "back fill" that is comparable to artists clay. The property is situated along an icky little bayou, the banks of which consist of that smelly, formless gray muck you describe. 3 years in, with lots of homemade compost and leaves from an adjacent patch of forest, and it's starting to half way decent. Using minimal dig and letting native weeds serve as cover crops. No amendments from outside.
This is my most trusted channel, being science-based and so credible. I've looked hard at amending my clay soil with gypsum, so I want to be clear about your view. I've read a number of papers by university ag scientists saying research has found gypsum effective in only two cases: to raise calcium without raising pH (so can't use lime); and to lower sodium levels in fine-textured sodic soils (which re-flocculates them). Is that assessment of gypsum correct or mistaken?
It’s correct because of volume. So if you have a major volume to change (such as agric applications) or something like a sandy or sandy loams I would be using sulphur. But! 🥲 keep in mind sulphur is notorious for killing fungi beneficial and otherwise. It’s why I say gypsum just to see if it does work for your space. But if it doesn’t sulphur , incorporate, water and allow it to rest for a season before using any form of inoculant. Soil pH is so heavily driven by parent material so it’s going to be a constant battle. I’ve never seen a scenario where someone has changed it and kept it there year after year. It’s a constant battle, even inputs and time will increase acidity.
I live in Sweden, on an old lake bottom that was farm land for many years before houses were built. I have grey clay whit a compacton layer about a foot and a haf deep. I bery bokashi compost and use grassklippings as mulch. In the worst places i use raisd beds. I now have a ton of earth worms and plants grow better every year 🙂
My house was built on top of an old brick factory, my street is called clay pit. From the moment I had transplanted my most prized plants from my previous address, I knew I was in trouble, 😂. I can say without a shadow of a doubt, my garden is 100% clay and I now have everything in a pot and raised beds. On a bonus note, my house foundations are rock solid!.
@@GardeningInCanada Just built up, I have raised beds for cabbages/broccoli/carrots etc and use buckets for potatoes. The rest of the garden is unfortunately artificial grass and slabbed. I have an almond and a walnut tree in huge pots. I am tempted to plant out my liquid amber tree but I’d be so upset if it died on me. It’s literally soaking all year round, my plants were rotting in the holes. Your video was very interesting, thank you.
Here we use rameal wood chips that we inoculate with worm casting tea. The reuslts take a few weeks but it works every time. Then we build up with compost.
Love the channel. I have heavy clay soil in my backyard so I sheet mulched with 2 layers of cardboard added 4" of topsoil & 2" of compost (no dig no till) then planted in comfrey heavily to combat the compaction. Short of digging up my no dig garden to know for sure how helpful it was I do not really know. Comfrey should do well in this regard should it not???
Thank you for this. I have very heavy grey clay - I always thought the colour depends also on the basic stone material (here in Finland I have never seen red clay soils, only grey). I have been recommended a combination of raised bed technique and using two-hand broadfork to air the clay before adding organic material and compost on top of it. What's your thoughts on this?
Thanks for the video. I definitely have a variety of clays, including marine clay if you dig down far enough (makes a nice face mask though). We ran a lot of alder through the chipper while clearing the lot and it has mixed well and decomposed quickly. Nevertheless raised beds it is.
I try to explain why clay is not good, but a good starting point: “immobile nutrients/ micronutrients”. I tell them, our goal is to amend that which is needed or missing, and mobilize that which already there. No dig/ compost methods are AMAZING. Especially when your starting point is a yellow/ orange/ red “Virginia Clay” (which is actually not from Virginia, it’s usually trucked in from West Virginia and/or Kentucky).
I have a clay soil so I made a big hole and placed some planters dirt and then put my plant in it so we shall see how it goes? Thanks for sharing you're thoughts and experiences I appreciate it and take care!
Well you have taught me a lot about what I'm dealing with. sigh. Where I am in Niagara region it is "reddish-hued lacustrine heavy clay. Got my work cut out for me.
I'm in florida by lots of ponds. Our soil is dredge to build dry areas. I pioneer the soil with plants that tolerate hard soil and no oxygen. Then I go back and vertical mulch with charcoal. Some areas I put organic material and charcoal then mass planted. Takes tons of time but now we can tolerate serious wet seasons with no standing water or wilted plants. Last year we had near 6 feet of rain in 3 months. Caused a little setback but my system seems to still be working. Downside is the time involved. It will be over a decade until I'm finished.
Hey great videos and content! So good to see some real science injected into the RUclips garden chat! What do you think of liquid aeration techniques? Do they work? Are they damaging to the environment?
Thank you so much! I'm going to combine this with Thriving Yard's "Deep Aeration & Compost additions" method. Your video really helped in explaining the differences which are significant because my back yard pools water and my front yard drains too well---they're both clay but the grading is completely different. So I'll need lime for the front and gypsum for the back. Thanks again!!!
Hello I have some clay loam soil in 3 acre hay field been farmed a while .. I dig about 18 to 24 in to get soil prepped for cannibus so I figured I'll try to amend or mulch with the hay itself
I deal with clay. Lucky if I have 2 inches of soil then clay. 1st and second year garden were fail as the soil hard panned. Had to go with raised beds. Amended with peat moss and compost. Enough bentonite clay when digging. Found a 12 inch layer of it. have a few projects in mind. Outdoor clay brick oven and wattle and daub project. Putting in more raised beds this year. Also building willow waffle or hurdle fences around garden.
thanks for the info. I have been adding charcoal to my clayish soil. I usually put the klinkers from my wood stove in the compost so it absorbs nutrients from there instead of the soil. It is supposed help with cation exchange also....+helps keep mycelium alive during catastrophies such as harvest time etc
We have a lot of clay soil. I’m enjoying your videos. We live about 2 hours from Canada in WA state. When y’all talk about centimeters, etc, we don’t understand as we do not use the metric system. Will you please translate so we can understand?
Thank you for the great content, you have my sub! I've got some problematic soil at my allotment garden I'm hoping you can give some advice on. It's not full clay but I'd say a decent portion is. It is very heavy and clumps in big chunks, quite hard to break up. I can get a picture if helpful! The particular issue I face is that my plot is next to a creek and it will fully flood each winter. Will the fact that it will flood seasonally hamper any efforts to amend the soil? Ironically water retention in the summer seems to be an issue. I'm noticing water pooling on the surface and running off. Without a good rain here in 2 months nothing I do with the hose seems to be good enough to penetrate very deep. I've noticed a large majority of my plants were very stunted this year. I suspect because they couldn't effectively grow roots and it was similar to being constrained to a small planter. I'm hesitant to add gypsum and lime if it will get washed away or compacted by the 1-2 feet of water it'll be stuck under this winter; will it still help? Raised beds could help maybe, but in bad years the water could be even deeper so I'm not sure if I'd spend a lot of money on lumber and soil just to have it rot or wash away itself.
Hey! That’s awesome this video was filmed before I made it that’s why i didn’t mention it. I have a few things coming down the pipeline for the channel.
Thank you very much. I have two questions for you please. 1. Do wood shavings and saw dust act as mulch? Can I use them to amend clay soil? 2. Is dolomite powder good for amending clay? Thank you again. Subscribed.
so 1. yes you can but dont incorporate it into the soil. If you composted them first you could use them to amend with. 2. yes dolomite will help increase the pH
I have clay soil and i use compost, chicken squat, and a broad-fork. It was the fastest way to feed my chickens with the weeds growing and have them scratch in the compost. They love the kitchen scraps and bugs. 🫶 i had to plant quickly to bring more flowers to the bee yard and bring in food for the fam.
Most of these seem aimed for plants and gardening. I'm doing lawn maintenance and for yards with hardpan/clayish soil I'm wondering since most won't likely want to till up an entire lawn if simply core aeration, raking up the plugs and then filling the holes with a Sandy loam topsoil, would be the route to go?
Word to the Wise: but she may have mentioned it later in the video. I live in a place with terrible calcareous clay soil at pH 8.3 or so. There's plenty of calcium of course - if you look at Mulder's Chart you will see that Calcium interferes with the uptake of pretty much every other nutrient - it's insane. Not to mention the high pH which stops uptake of nearly every micronutrient. So the Worst thing I could do would be to add gypsum (calcium) or Lime (raises pH). Elemental sulfur is slow, and if I remember from my undergrad Micro the bact. that turns it into acid needs a fairly low pH to start with. Therefore - I find myself adding copper especially, zinc, boron, etc with variable results - organic material is hard to come by here - frustrating ! Thanks for this though - a very important topic to many people.
We have volcanic clay that's 10s of feet deep. We add loads of carbon through leaves, straw, and manure. But our vegetable garden space "eats" the fluffy stuff faster than we can procure it. It weeds up quickly, pudding when wet and a rock when dry, once it dries to the point where we get cracking it is really hard to get it rewetted. It responds well with thick mulch for weed suppression, but the worms can easily break down cardboard so I'm leaning on straw from now on.
Haha did you watch my video on it? I agree it has it’s problem and it does nothing for the base soil underneath. But it does allow you to grow a garden in an area where you typically would not be able too.
I have red clay soils. Nitrogen and calcium deficient. I've started mulching. Planning on cover cropping with daikon radish for the winter im in zone 8b southern/central oregon id appreciate any other advice. I use some jadam knf practices. I very supplemented calcium with souliable Gypsum mixed-up in water. We have long periods of drought
I know sand is not recommended, but I think I will need y use for my desert plants section of my garden. It’s only 2m x 3m I will raise it up a little and add a ton of sand, a small amount of compost along with perlite and some other volcanic rocks + gravel. The soil there is kind of sandy clay. It drains fairly fast, but not fast enough for cacti and succulents. Is there any drawbacks to this plan? If so what would be a better approach to making the soil good for cacti and succulents.
Excellent video. My Mother in law lives in S. Illinois. Her yard is Blue clay, I think. We built 2 separate gardens. 1, 7 raised beds and the other in ground lasagna. We utilized cardboard and wood mulches andother organic matter for both. We're very new to gardening but are passionate about it. Question: If you had the money would you recommend gypsum or lime, if a quick fix was the goal ? We're considering getting a soil analysis before expanding the garden as well. There's other considerations like mineral and nutrient deficiencies correct? Awesome video, new sub from Victoria BC Cheers Jason and Colleen 🌱🌱🌱
@@GardeningInCanada still trying form more informed questions. We're looking through and watching videos in your Playlist. You'll definitely be seeing us in the comments. Again excellent channel!!
Great ideas Ive heard organic matter is useful too but without a "rock" to help make it act more like sand it will compact back down over time and you will need to repeat I have sandy soil great drainage compared to clay Ive seen clay gardens and they can do well but its hard to grow in mud or concrete theres no middle ground sometimes with clay Im going to check out your sandy soil video now i saved it for later ;) Much love xoxox thanks
Thank you! I have tight clay soil. Last summer we manually turned it in large junks and put straw on top. This year we are going to break it,manually tilling and till in a lot of horse poo, then put a thick layer of straw on top. On top of which I will put raised neds for squash and pumpkin, Then the spring after that we are going to till everything together again and start potatoes under a straw layer. Then till everything in again the autumn and then the next spring which would be 2026 I would hope we have a passable soil to grow. What do you think? Could it work? A lot of horse poo and straw tilled in during a couple of years. And Northern Europe, Finland in the location so the ground does freeze every winter. We do have a 24 m2 greenhouse and some raised beds but I want to grow in the mineral soil too, be it clay or not. Will I win or not?
I don't have soil :(. My house is sitting on top of bed rock and builder's loam (big rocks and sand). Where should I start off? Should I buy in some soil and mulch it? I was thinking of sheet mulching with some horse manure and wood chips on top of some purchased soil.
@@GardeningInCanada I want to plant out a forest garden. Mainly because I don't want to mow grass. And I think perfectly level monocrop of grass is quite boring and a waste of space. I plan on starting out with nitrogen fixers like honey locust, seabuck thorns and clovers and then gradually moving on to more perennial food crops. I do plan on having couple raised beds while my nitrogen fixers do their thing for a while.
being a soil scientist, it would be helpful for a video of how to convert the PPM (of the N-P-K) in a soil test, to a useful number like pounds per square foot amendment. An example would be the results of phosphate PPM in the soil sample, subtracted from the ideal PPM of phosphate to have in the soil. Convert the resultant PPM to a weight. Then given the amount of phosphate per weight of the rock phosphate material to use, a person would know how much material to add per square foot (to add as an amendment to balance the deficiency indicated by the soil test). How to convert the PPM into weight of the rock phosphate to be added per square foot in the garden. Also a visual example of how to do a proper soil test sampling method. An explanation of how to take a bag of rock phosphate, potassium, and nitrogen, each of them having a N-P-K value. Taking the weight of the bag (example 40 pounds) and the N-P-K number (0-15-0) on the bag to calculate how much N or P or K by weight is in the material. Thus the gardner would be able to convert the soil test result into a measure of material per square foot to amend the soil and bring the soil up to best condition to grow healthy vibrant plants or trees.
@@GardeningInCanada please let me know when the soil amendment guide on amount of N-P-K to add based on PPM results in the soil test is available, also include pH calcium sources and how to use a measured amount of calcium amendment to raise the pH. I'm sure many of us would be interested, even going over the elements of a typical, as well as a detailed, soil test would be greatly appreciated
Hi. I have a question? I bought a property last summer and it has a huge garden (35X75 feet) and they didn’t plant anything last year (cause they were moving) so I went out to look at the soil and it is hard unless you wet it, and drys out super fast. I’m not sure if I need a tiller? Or if it will just fix itself? There’s also grass growing back in some spots. Please help!!
Great vid! I live by a lake. All the soil is super hard grey clay. But there are several things growing in it: hydrangeas, roses, those big paddle ground covers… Are there any other flowers or shrubs that will survive this hard grey, high water table clay? Something that loves iron ? Thanks!
I have a new construction home here in michigan . The excavator had to fill the lot approx half acre...with 3ft solid clay . What would be my approach to layer next lime then compost then top soil ? Just to get grass to grow ? Would I till after lime/ wood chips or compost? Then topsoil and seed and straw mat ? Thanks for any input 👍
I’m wondering if I need to add clay to my soil and how I might go about doing that. I live in Florida and my raised beds are almost 100% organic matter. They dry out pretty quickly in the heat of summer. Would a bit of clay help that problem?
Very informative, thank you! I'd love to do this for 3-4 acres and start a fruit tree orchard (here in BC Canada). There is unfortunately a high water table and a few sections of pooling water during the rainy months. Can you point me in in the right direction? I'm so interested! Curious in getting gypsum and lime in big quantities 🙂
@@GardeningInCanadaA bit of both. I'd say the heavy clay increases the water table in the area but it could shed into a creek if the ground had better drainage/movement. Just wondering if you know how big operations amend their soil? Gypsum , lime & sand by the dumptruck and till it in? Right now, my best guess would be that I need to amend the subsoil so that a tree orchard could thrive?
The area where myy garden is was pretty good at holding water, until I tilled it up, I'm guessing I need more mulch and compost in the half that is holding water, the plants grew but only to a couple feet and are fruiting full size fruits lol, the other half of the garden is doing quite well tho
I’m south Calgary I have about 6-8 inches of dark black clay soil and under that is almost solid grey clay with lots of rocks. I generally dig into this layer about a foot and loose it up and remove rocks. Would there be any issue with doing this? Maybe the hole I dig into the clay will create a isolated water table at the plants roots? What are your thoughts on either humid acid or worm castings mixed with clay to add texture? Or better to add perlite for drainage? When I put any garden soil even amended into a pot it will hold onto unbelievable amounts of water and absolutely won’t drain.
So grey is a sign of anaerobic/incredibly poor draining soil. Have you ever tilled the area or incorporated high levels of organic materials? Does it tend to just swallow it up if you have? gardeningincanada.net/soil-colour-testing-for-garden-soil/
Yes I dug up all the clay when I planted the flower gardens and mixed it throughout but still it seems to settle back to its previous state after a couple months of watering
The hard compacted clay here starts between 6 to 12 inches below the ground wherever I have dug around the yard and I havent found how deep it extends yet(I'm over 4ft down removing some termite damaged tree stumps, still going), the top soil is crumbly and also I have found some sandy sections. Inland Australia here, moved here at end of last summer (wetter season) and found easy to have pooling water on top after good few days rain that takes long time to dry up. I was thinking of raised beds before watching this video of yours and after watching I think that thats probably the best solution for a vegetable garden, do you agree? I do have some larger cactus potted plants I was planning to plant where I am removing some of the termite infested trees, should I put the clay back in bottom of pit I had to dig to get stump out before planting the large cactus(monsterous peruvian apple cactus) just as it was or amend the entire hole dug, I ask because unsure if I will have made a clay pot hole for lack of a better description and will I be drowning the roots by doing such(picturing a hole full of water after rest runs off) . One more question, is it unlikely or quite possibe for a raised garden bed in this scenario to EVER connect via mycellium (sorry if spelt wrong) to other raised beds or trees in this yard(cant say I saw any during digging several stumps out so far) but wasnt sure if I should spend much effort on the fungi side of things which I why I ask. Thank you for taking the time to answer,
@@GardeningInCanada yes I would say it is, the lot is only 1/4 acre and I've dug stumps out of most parts around the yard, under one stump found some 1920s old glass perfume, poison and medicine bottles in the clay about 12 inches under the ground and its was hard digging them out cause of the compact clay(house was built in the 1940, so they'd been there a long time) and I'd gone through a couple inches of that clay before reaching those bottles
I have been in Calgary working with the soils here which tend to be loam/clay base higher lime , and in most of the newer areas of home construction they put in 6 to 12 inches of loamy/clay soil having a base underneath this of grey clay, which if you plant trees to low makes a basin of death for that tree. While I have not tested the clay for alklinity the soil usually comes out at about 7.5+. I am looking to solutions other than planting higher and am looking for your thoughts on this and natural fungicides.l
I should give up on gardening and switch to pottery. The clay I have is exactly like what you would see in a pottery class. Add in rocks that are the size of small potatoes and you have what’s in my yard.
Don't give up if you have clay soil. When I started the only things that thrived were burr clover and fox tail. Miners lettus grew 2 inches and was yellow. I've been working over 10 years it's starting to become useful soil.
So grateful for this video! I do have clay soil! Not sure what level. I’m testing a variety of plants in it - and I’m finding they’re all slowly developing yellowing crispy leaves - so I’m concerned that the iron is getting bound up by the acidic soil. Do you think iron tone from espoma will help? Will iron deficiency dismantle the blooming process for the dahlias? The chlorosis is not serious…just a few leaves lost per plant - but I’m watching it and I’m curious
@@GardeningInCanada Hi! Yes it is. I think you may be right. What can I do to treat this un-aerated soil? I was thinking about loading up some compost and leaf mulch in the fall and hoping it will generate earth worm. Movement. What do you propose?
@@GardeningInCanada thank you! I also just saw your video about liquid aeration - and I’m going to try treating with some lime fertilizer to break it up as well
Amazon Link:
Gypsum (my favourite)- geni.us/isSrB
Lime - geni.us/AQkCy
:)
what is the best method in applying gypsum ?
I would just sprinkle it on. But if you’re dealing with a larger area and need a drastic pH change use Elemental Sulphur
I saw "soil scientist + Gardening" and I never clicked on a youtuber so fast.
Hahaha awe welcome!
Living in tn with loamish clay soil and chunky rocks. All I can say is mulch, mulch, mulch. If your not using a raised bed. Sheet mulch with cardboard and add 3 to 4 inches of compost to the top. Adding a layer of lighter mulch like leaves to the top of that. After a few years your soil beneath will improve significantly.
Very true
In New Market area of E Tn.
Hillside has a lot of the rocks, clay, and overall poor dirt. Trying to figure out what is affordable to do
When you say mulch. You mean the stuff at the home and garden store? Or like mulching grass? Sorry I'm noob
@@bleb87 I use wood chip mulch in my walkways and whatever I can find in my planting areas. Usually straw or animal bedding but its important to use plenty or cardboard under everything, not allowing any spaces for the grass to grow through. You'll need to keep adding mulch every couple years as needed too especially if your not starting with a layer that's atleast 6 inches deep or so. And start with a new layer of cardboard as well if you have alot of weeds poking through. It takes some maintenance unfortunately I've not found an easy fix.
@@bleb87 in my planting area I just lay down packaging paper and compost on top. Deep enough to plant in.
I live in Uganda and am trying to garden/farm but am struggling mightily with rock hard orange clay soil. It is so dense the locals make brick and tiles from it and use to build their houses. This combined with lots of year round rain, and the lack of any type of gardening tools or supplies has made our time here a challenge. We bought 50 dump truck loads of cow manure and 50 of river hyacinth, and have been making as much compost as we can, and have been trying to add the compost to the soil. We finally are to the point we can grow leafy vegetables like lettuce, cabbage, spinach, amaranth and so forth, but are struggling to get any fruiting type vegetables to grow. Squash, cucumber, pumpkin and zucchini simply come up as puny sickly plants with small leaves, and they die before they fruit. So, as we continue to ammend the soil with compost, I am interested in trying to amend with lime as you suggest, as lime is available here. In your video, you did not mention how much lime to use, or how to incorporated it into the soil. Can you offer me any suggestions?
that sounds good! has it worked out
Here is what I found online:
It takes 20 to 50 pounds (9-23 k.) of ground limestone per 1,000 square feet (93 m²) to correct a mildly acidic lawn. Strongly acidic or heavy clay soil may need as much as 100 pounds (46 k.).
Keep going getting manure and waste plant stuff Dig trenches to put it in to give you deeper garden for roots
Clay soil is most likely already alkaline ....you should test your soil for PH before you assume you need lime ....or you'll make it worse.
If you have alkaline soil you add elemental sulphur to acidify it.
Test your soil properly don't guess
Idea: use clay bricks to build raised beds and fill with compost! And good for you to take on such harsh conditions. Wow. Gardening will get more fun as plants get happier and produce more. Our slimy-gray clay soil is impossible but I too am clubbing away at it. It all takes SO much time -- but I've never been happier! Plus, I've seen online some who insist clay is alkaline, some say it's acidic. The farmers around here use lime so I'm assuming local clay is the former.
In Northern Ontario here ... Thank you for the advice on clay soil. I've been gardening for over 20 years and your tips are awesome. Please continue providing us with great information for cold climate gardening.
Great to hear!
THANK YOU! ALL OF YOU for the amount of work you’re doing on the back end to support/get the word out about the channel. YOU HAVE NO idea how much this has changed the channels response. I could not do any of this without you guys and i hope you truly understand that.
Make sure to grab your planners! etsy.me/3dZ4ncs
My understanding is that gypsum only works when you have soil that is high in sodium with a high pH. Otherwise gypsum is a waste of time.
In the states the soils have been mapped extensively. Soil maps are easy to access and if you are unable to do so the local agricultural extension service can tell you exactly what soil type you have. No need to guess.
IMO randomly adding lime is a recipe for disaster unless you have done a soil test that generates the specific amount of lime to use.
As the comments show there are a billion opinions on what works best on clay. Over the years I have found a combination of compost along with humic acid works best for me. The key is to always have something growing in the soil and if you absolutely can’t then a really good mulch layer is important. Never let soil sit totally bare
YES. Exactly.
I have read that you can plant daikon radishes. These radishes are huge and if you leave them to rot in the clay they will add nutrients as well. (Just cut the top matter off)
Yup! I have a video on that
@@GardeningInCanada I will look for it!
Yep. I found gray clay under the builder's backfill in my backyard. We also had a ton of rocks in the soil as well. So I built raised beds on top of everything. They're super deep because we have a sloped backyard so I fill the bottom of the beds with logs and sticks/woodchips and then put soil on the top 16 inches. The plants have a lot of soil to dig deep into and they seem pretty happy. Have to constantly fill the beds with more compost throughout the year though because of shrinkage.
Have clay soil, sort of live in a swampy area. Nothing would grow in my yard, even different grasses struggled. Had to dig out drainage trenches! Could probably make pottery out of my soil. I built tall raised beds last year and filled it hugelkultur style. Had really good success last year with spinach and peas. Let's hope for another successful growing season!👩🌾🥰
That would work awesome. I know farmers who have done drainage tiles for example in their fields.
Compost, mulch, biochar and compost tea from BoogieBrew has made a great improvement in my clay soil. My fruit trees and vegetable garden is thriving. I can now drive a shovel a good 2 feet, before an inch only. Let the microorganisms in the compost tea do the work for you, they soften that soil for you. Good luck! It is possible to have a thriving garden in clay soil!
Thanks for sharing
Very helpful, thank you! I live in North Carolina (USA) and we have horrible clay soil that is incredibly compacted that even augers have a difficult time getting through. Going to try your recommendations for our garden patch!
Oh my that’s crazy. Bottom of an old lake?
You are a blessing to every gardener for sure!
Awee thanks 😊
Keep coming back to this one for a refresher. Golden information in this video. My soil is constantly improving thanks to this.
Glad it was helpful!
What would be your prime choice for a winter cover crop in zone 8?
Just subscribed because I love Soil SAVE/SOIL Please! Since I was in my early 20's, I understood how soil is so important ti mankind. Thank you for sharing what we can all do. Carry on...
YAY! thanks
Gypsum works for a season only. Lime alters pH too much. Add sand to the mix and you will end up with concrete soil if it is baked in Summer.
Better to grow a cover crop, terminate by covering and then mulch with compost.
Sulphur lasts a bit longer. Gypsum for pH is only best for small scale I sgree
I have done this leaf mulch..on clay ......wonderful growth
yea absolutely that works
Folks in town around here have 2" of top soil followed by a green /gray clay layer. I have done some custom tilling and like adding lime because it is cheap here I take the lime as deep as their pocket books will let me and then till a manure based compost into the top 4". I have 24 inches of silt loam with 24 percent organic matter, sooooo that's about it. Thanks for the post.
Yes! That sounds amazing
@@GardeningInCanada I do have incredible pig weed populations so, it's not all rainbows and sunshine. lol
Hahah it’s a curated collection of pig weed 😂
Great video, I learned a lot. ! I have an organic homestead on a stream, which has super silty soil. We utilized option 3 and it did slow down our crops initially, but by the next season the soil was noticeably less compact. Now we hot compost and build up the soil in rows
I have a dark fertile clay and I am double digging the beds and staying in ground. I’m adding compost or compost + top soil into the beds as I double dig to break up the soil, then adding some high quality bagged soil to the top. Here’s hoping.
Last spring, I started trench composting like it was going out of style! It did wonders to a heavily compacted, washed out, lacking nutrients patch of heavy clay! I planted tomatoes, in June, not expecting anything. They did very well! At the end of the season, I cut them to the ground, but left the roots undisturbed. Planted cover crops. Sadly, a little too late. Next fall, I'll plant them much earlier.
That’s awesome! Sounds like a great setup
WE ALL NEED TO STAY FOCUSED! WE ARE NOW PERHAPS, NEXT TO, OR, CLOSE TO, THE LAST HUMANS ON THIS PLANET. THAT MAY SOUND TOO BRUTAL. I SAY...........LEARN~~~~~~~LEARN..............
watched again, thank you again! great info.
Awesome, thank you!
awesome video on clay, thank you! I'll probably do all 3 suggestions to improve my clay soil in my housing development near Seattle.
Yea! Let me know how it does
Just found your channel but loving your videos. You clearly have the in depth knowledge but explain things well for beginners.
Awe! Thank you for the appreciation
Thank you so much! I’m getting started tomorrow on this process. Your the 1st one that explained my clay soil issue & cure, clearly & succinctly! So ty!👍
good lucck you got this
Very well explained. Thank you.
Absolutely have clay soil! Watching to see how to flocculate it, like using compost/compost tea to introduce biology.
Woohoo!!!! Join the club
Hi Ashley, I'm from Newfoundland. Thank you for all the wonderful information. I've got red clay soil in my flower garden, and I'm going to try the things you are saying. Im a subscriber of yours . Thanks again.
Wonderful! Good luck. Let me know if you need anything specific
I heard you briefly mention taproot plants. I am going to plant a bunch of tall sunflowers just to try to break up the soil on deeper level a bit more without having to till. We’ll see.
You have been very beneficial, thank you. I am trying other methods but you have given me some other ideas a product such as lying that I have here to add also thanks a bunch keep up the good work you’re doing great thumbs up.😊
Arizona here, about a 1/2 meter aka 18 inches we have a layer of caliche, aka calcium carbonate, a hole that is 20 L aka 5 gal. When filled with water it takes approx 12 hrs to drain.
What has really helped was tilling in alfafa pellets, wood chips and cover cropped with peas, oats, buckwheat, flax, and then tilled it in, now I plant Diakon radish, heavy seeded, 1 plant per 10 cm aka 4", and now it is draining water, and loaded with earthworms, I still cover crop and rotate planting areas.
The PH has dropped from 8.3 to high 7s, now cover croppings are mostly a big mix to attract beneficial insects.
I missed the soil analysis recommendation. I did one so know what to target as amending. Used a huge amount of Tigersol very early on.
that sounds awesome
@@GardeningInCanada wish I could send you some calcium, Dad used to burn lime in the Fraser Valley pre WW2 to help with the acidic souls and it's effect on plant nutrition that had negative effects on the dairy industry, so PH is very critical.
this was incredibly informative and helpful! thank you!!! 🤓
Glad it was helpful!
Clay,but 5 years of manure,leaves and grass clipping and leaf compose,
My also now into no dig,
Believe in future stating cover crops and clover for my walk ways as I've got clover seads and buckwheat for after summer harvest.
Have you found what you’re doing works
Yes for somethings
Last season first for no tilt ,Nice tomatoes after knats nearly distory the half of seedlings that didn't die.
Cold temperatures I believe stunted my peppers. The potatoes did far.,Squash bugs for he'll like I've never seen ever!
3 pickings of green beans and no poisoning and almost bug free.
But we plant more than we need to have extras.
Next season is said to get better in the no tilt system,
Planning 34 type of tomatoes and 9 bell peppers again looking for better vegetables yeah 3 plus times any other 50 years ago ,I'm 70 figure some day I might have to cut back to only on last row of garden trying to figure what I'll plant my last season.
I garden in highly compacted, lifeless clay "back fill" that is comparable to artists clay. The property is situated along an icky little bayou, the banks of which consist of that smelly, formless gray muck you describe. 3 years in, with lots of homemade compost and leaves from an adjacent patch of forest, and it's starting to half way decent. Using minimal dig and letting native weeds serve as cover crops. No amendments from outside.
thanks much, i found the info about lime interesting and i hope to improve my waterlogged slimy clay mud soil here in ventura county California
Glad it was helpful!
This is my most trusted channel, being science-based and so credible. I've looked hard at amending my clay soil with gypsum, so I want to be clear about your view. I've read a number of papers by university ag scientists saying research has found gypsum effective in only two cases: to raise calcium without raising pH (so can't use lime); and to lower sodium levels in fine-textured sodic soils (which re-flocculates them). Is that assessment of gypsum correct or mistaken?
It’s correct because of volume. So if you have a major volume to change (such as agric applications) or something like a sandy or sandy loams I would be using sulphur. But! 🥲 keep in mind sulphur is notorious for killing fungi beneficial and otherwise.
It’s why I say gypsum just to see if it does work for your space. But if it doesn’t sulphur , incorporate, water and allow it to rest for a season before using any form of inoculant.
Soil pH is so heavily driven by parent material so it’s going to be a constant battle. I’ve never seen a scenario where someone has changed it and kept it there year after year. It’s a constant battle, even inputs and time will increase acidity.
Is that at all helpful?
I live in Sweden, on an old lake bottom that was farm land for many years before houses were built. I have grey clay whit a compacton layer about a foot and a haf deep. I bery bokashi compost and use grassklippings as mulch. In the worst places i use raisd beds. I now have a ton of earth worms and plants grow better every year 🙂
My house was built on top of an old brick factory, my street is called clay pit.
From the moment I had transplanted my most prized plants from my previous address, I knew I was in trouble, 😂.
I can say without a shadow of a doubt, my garden is 100% clay and I now have everything in a pot and raised beds.
On a bonus note, my house foundations are rock solid!.
Oh no haha. how have you amended it to date? or did you just build up
@@GardeningInCanada Just built up, I have raised beds for cabbages/broccoli/carrots etc and use buckets for potatoes.
The rest of the garden is unfortunately artificial grass and slabbed. I have an almond and a walnut tree in huge pots. I am tempted to plant out my liquid amber tree but I’d be so upset if it died on me.
It’s literally soaking all year round, my plants were rotting in the holes.
Your video was very interesting, thank you.
Here we use rameal wood chips that we inoculate with worm casting tea. The reuslts take a few weeks but it works every time. Then we build up with compost.
Fascinating information. Thanks for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed it!
yes, clay soil here, thanks for this video (Asian jumping worms too :( )
Love the channel. I have heavy clay soil in my backyard so I sheet mulched with 2 layers of cardboard added 4" of topsoil & 2" of compost (no dig no till) then planted in comfrey heavily to combat the compaction. Short of digging up my no dig garden to know for sure how helpful it was I do not really know. Comfrey should do well in this regard should it not???
Thank you for this. I have very heavy grey clay - I always thought the colour depends also on the basic stone material (here in Finland I have never seen red clay soils, only grey). I have been recommended a combination of raised bed technique and using two-hand broadfork to air the clay before adding organic material and compost on top of it. What's your thoughts on this?
Thanks for the video. I definitely have a variety of clays, including marine clay if you dig down far enough (makes a nice face mask though). We ran a lot of alder through the chipper while clearing the lot and it has mixed well and decomposed quickly. Nevertheless raised beds it is.
Haha love that face mask comment ❤️
100k! It's done! Congrats! :D
I try to explain why clay is not good, but a good starting point: “immobile nutrients/ micronutrients”.
I tell them, our goal is to amend that which is needed or missing, and mobilize that which already there. No dig/ compost methods are AMAZING. Especially when your starting point is a yellow/ orange/ red “Virginia Clay” (which is actually not from Virginia, it’s usually trucked in from West Virginia and/or Kentucky).
Love that
Thanks Ashley.
I have a clay soil so I made a big hole and placed some planters dirt and then put my plant in it so we shall see how it goes? Thanks for sharing you're thoughts and experiences I appreciate it and take care!
I love that idea ahah
Well you have taught me a lot about what I'm dealing with. sigh. Where I am in Niagara region it is "reddish-hued lacustrine heavy clay. Got my work cut out for me.
I'm in florida by lots of ponds. Our soil is dredge to build dry areas. I pioneer the soil with plants that tolerate hard soil and no oxygen. Then I go back and vertical mulch with charcoal. Some areas I put organic material and charcoal then mass planted. Takes tons of time but now we can tolerate serious wet seasons with no standing water or wilted plants. Last year we had near 6 feet of rain in 3 months. Caused a little setback but my system seems to still be working. Downside is the time involved. It will be over a decade until I'm finished.
When should one add these amendments. It’s Nov and I’m in Zone 6a. Planning on doing a full bed planting in the spring. Thanks!
Hey great videos and content! So good to see some real science injected into the RUclips garden chat!
What do you think of liquid aeration techniques? Do they work? Are they damaging to the environment?
Oh that’s a good video idea!
Clay and alkaline sol hère. Hoping our new Serviceberry tree coming in the spring will survive.
It will! You have all the tools you need to succeed with the crew over here.
@@GardeningInCanada ☺️
❤️❤️
Thank you so much! I'm going to combine this with Thriving Yard's "Deep Aeration & Compost additions" method. Your video really helped in explaining the differences which are significant because my back yard pools water and my front yard drains too well---they're both clay but the grading is completely different. So I'll need lime for the front and gypsum for the back. Thanks again!!!
Yea absolutely that totally makes sense!
Hello I have some clay loam soil in 3 acre hay field been farmed a while .. I dig about 18 to 24 in to get soil prepped for cannibus so I figured I'll try to amend or mulch with the hay itself
You can top dress with that to help with moisture retention
I deal with clay. Lucky if I have 2 inches of soil then clay. 1st and second year garden were fail as the soil hard panned. Had to go with raised beds. Amended with peat moss and compost.
Enough bentonite clay when digging. Found a 12 inch layer of it. have a few projects in mind. Outdoor clay brick oven and wattle and daub project.
Putting in more raised beds this year. Also building willow waffle or hurdle fences around garden.
Jeez, you must be at the bottom of an old lake.
@@GardeningInCanada no but am in a valley in the foot hills.
That’s interesting. You should research the geological history of the land and let me know what you find. I’d be interested in finding out.
@@GardeningInCanada what I found very interesting is that the whole Peace region is selenium deficient.
That’s bizarre because soil is usually really high in selenium. In sask some areas are considered toxic
thanks for the info. I have been adding charcoal to my clayish soil. I usually put the klinkers from my wood stove in the compost so it absorbs nutrients from there instead of the soil. It is supposed help with cation exchange also....+helps keep mycelium alive during catastrophies such as harvest time etc
thats awesome! i like that idea
My soil is so full of clay that I made a clay bunny out of it 😂😂😂
HAHA oh no!
We have a lot of clay soil. I’m enjoying your videos.
We live about 2 hours from Canada in WA state.
When y’all talk about centimeters, etc, we don’t understand as we do not use the metric system. Will you please translate so we can understand?
One inch is 2.5 cm
great video thank you. The science is really helpful :)
Thank you for the great content, you have my sub! I've got some problematic soil at my allotment garden I'm hoping you can give some advice on. It's not full clay but I'd say a decent portion is. It is very heavy and clumps in big chunks, quite hard to break up. I can get a picture if helpful! The particular issue I face is that my plot is next to a creek and it will fully flood each winter. Will the fact that it will flood seasonally hamper any efforts to amend the soil?
Ironically water retention in the summer seems to be an issue. I'm noticing water pooling on the surface and running off. Without a good rain here in 2 months nothing I do with the hose seems to be good enough to penetrate very deep. I've noticed a large majority of my plants were very stunted this year. I suspect because they couldn't effectively grow roots and it was similar to being constrained to a small planter.
I'm hesitant to add gypsum and lime if it will get washed away or compacted by the 1-2 feet of water it'll be stuck under this winter; will it still help? Raised beds could help maybe, but in bad years the water could be even deeper so I'm not sure if I'd spend a lot of money on lumber and soil just to have it rot or wash away itself.
The flooding won’t help unfortunately. Is it a moving flood? Or just it just good and stay
Early bird gets the worm!
Hahah love that 😂
Great video, but dont have clay.
I see you started a patreon page!
Got my membership started as a garden grunt. Glad to be part of your channel!
Hey! That’s awesome this video was filmed before I made it that’s why i didn’t mention it. I have a few things coming down the pipeline for the channel.
Thank you very much. I have two questions for you please. 1. Do wood shavings and saw dust act as mulch? Can I use them to amend clay soil? 2. Is dolomite powder good for amending clay? Thank you again.
Subscribed.
so 1. yes you can but dont incorporate it into the soil. If you composted them first you could use them to amend with. 2. yes dolomite will help increase the pH
I have clay soil and i use compost, chicken squat, and a broad-fork. It was the fastest way to feed my chickens with the weeds growing and have them scratch in the compost. They love the kitchen scraps and bugs. 🫶 i had to plant quickly to bring more flowers to the bee yard and bring in food for the fam.
Most of these seem aimed for plants and gardening. I'm doing lawn maintenance and for yards with hardpan/clayish soil I'm wondering since most won't likely want to till up an entire lawn if simply core aeration, raking up the plugs and then filling the holes with a Sandy loam topsoil, would be the route to go?
Thank you.
Word to the Wise: but she may have mentioned it later in the video. I live in a place with terrible calcareous clay soil at pH 8.3 or so. There's plenty of calcium of course - if you look at Mulder's Chart you will see that Calcium interferes with the uptake of pretty much every other nutrient - it's insane. Not to mention the high pH which stops uptake of nearly every micronutrient. So the Worst thing I could do would be to add gypsum (calcium) or Lime (raises pH). Elemental sulfur is slow, and if I remember from my undergrad Micro the bact. that turns it into acid needs a fairly low pH to start with. Therefore - I find myself adding copper especially, zinc, boron, etc with variable results - organic material is hard to come by here - frustrating !
Thanks for this though - a very important topic to many people.
We have volcanic clay that's 10s of feet deep. We add loads of carbon through leaves, straw, and manure. But our vegetable garden space "eats" the fluffy stuff faster than we can procure it. It weeds up quickly, pudding when wet and a rock when dry, once it dries to the point where we get cracking it is really hard to get it rewetted. It responds well with thick mulch for weed suppression, but the worms can easily break down cardboard so I'm leaning on straw from now on.
Hardpan clay here, but Ruth Stout method works well enough for most things.
That would work awesome for hardpan clay. Ultimately that maybe the only cost effective method for some folks.
@@GardeningInCanada Well, I have also been letting anything take root that wants, dandelions and alfalfa favored though.
Yea! That’s an awesome method as well, that makes a huge difference.
@@GardeningInCanada Does that method actually turn clay into arable soil? To me it seems like a giant compost pile of hay and a haven for rodents.
Haha did you watch my video on it? I agree it has it’s problem and it does nothing for the base soil underneath. But it does allow you to grow a garden in an area where you typically would not be able too.
I have red clay soils. Nitrogen and calcium deficient. I've started mulching. Planning on cover cropping with daikon radish for the winter im in zone 8b southern/central oregon id appreciate any other advice. I use some jadam knf practices. I very supplemented calcium with souliable Gypsum mixed-up in water. We have long periods of drought
I know sand is not recommended, but I think I will need y use for my desert plants section of my garden. It’s only 2m x 3m I will raise it up a little and add a ton of sand, a small amount of compost along with perlite and some other volcanic rocks + gravel.
The soil there is kind of sandy clay. It drains fairly fast, but not fast enough for cacti and succulents.
Is there any drawbacks to this plan? If so what would be a better approach to making the soil good for cacti and succulents.
Ozarks here ...we have full blown clay and rocks that's it ... Only raised beds here, at least on my property
Excellent video. My Mother in law lives in S. Illinois. Her yard is Blue clay, I think. We built 2 separate gardens. 1, 7 raised beds and the other in ground lasagna. We utilized cardboard and wood mulches andother organic matter for both.
We're very new to gardening but are passionate about it.
Question:
If you had the money would you recommend gypsum or lime, if a quick fix was the goal ?
We're considering getting a soil analysis before expanding the garden as well. There's other considerations like mineral and nutrient deficiencies correct?
Awesome video, new sub from Victoria BC
Cheers Jason and Colleen 🌱🌱🌱
Lime 100% I wouldn't pay for soil tests. I am going to do videos on this soon!
@@GardeningInCanada excellent!! Thank you for responding, we really appreciate it and enjoy your content!!
Cheers from Victoria BC
Anytime! Let me know if you need anything in particular
@@GardeningInCanada still trying form more informed questions. We're looking through and watching videos in your Playlist. You'll definitely be seeing us in the comments.
Again excellent channel!!
Great ideas
Ive heard organic matter is useful too but without a "rock" to help make it act more like sand it will compact back down over time and you will need to repeat
I have sandy soil great drainage compared to clay
Ive seen clay gardens and they can do well but its hard to grow in mud or concrete theres no middle ground sometimes with clay
Im going to check out your sandy soil video now i saved it for later ;)
Much love xoxox thanks
Hahah awesome!
Thank you! I have tight clay soil. Last summer we manually turned it in large junks and put straw on top. This year we are going to break it,manually tilling and till in a lot of horse poo, then put a thick layer of straw on top. On top of which I will put raised neds for squash and pumpkin, Then the spring after that we are going to till everything together again and start potatoes under a straw layer. Then till everything in again the autumn and then the next spring which would be 2026 I would hope we have a passable soil to grow. What do you think? Could it work? A lot of horse poo and straw tilled in during a couple of years. And Northern Europe, Finland in the location so the ground does freeze every winter. We do have a 24 m2 greenhouse and some raised beds but I want to grow in the mineral soil too, be it clay or not. Will I win or not?
Great tips!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I live in Brampton On. There's a lot of clay soil in my area. I have no clue what to do at this point. Hopefully this will help
I don't have soil :(. My house is sitting on top of bed rock and builder's loam (big rocks and sand). Where should I start off? Should I buy in some soil and mulch it? I was thinking of sheet mulching with some horse manure and wood chips on top of some purchased soil.
Are you wanting raised beds at all? Or just ground level.
@@GardeningInCanada I want to plant out a forest garden. Mainly because I don't want to mow grass. And I think perfectly level monocrop of grass is quite boring and a waste of space. I plan on starting out with nitrogen fixers like honey locust, seabuck thorns and clovers and then gradually moving on to more perennial food crops. I do plan on having couple raised beds while my nitrogen fixers do their thing for a while.
That’s awesome! I think they are boring as well.
Planting Daikon radishes or Tillage Radishes and leaving them to decompose is easy and inexpensive but takes a year…a place to start.
you can always remove them too rather then leaving them in place.
being a soil scientist, it would be helpful for a video of how to convert the PPM (of the N-P-K) in a soil test, to a useful number like pounds per square foot amendment. An example would be the results of phosphate PPM in the soil sample, subtracted from the ideal PPM of phosphate to have in the soil. Convert the resultant PPM to a weight. Then given the amount of phosphate per weight of the rock phosphate material to use, a person would know how much material to add per square foot (to add as an amendment to balance the deficiency indicated by the soil test).
How to convert the PPM into weight of the rock phosphate to be added per square foot in the garden. Also a visual example of how to do a proper soil test sampling method. An explanation of how to take a bag of rock phosphate, potassium, and nitrogen, each of them having a N-P-K value. Taking the weight of the bag (example 40 pounds) and the N-P-K number (0-15-0) on the bag to calculate how much N or P or K by weight is in the material. Thus the gardner would be able to convert the soil test result into a measure of material per square foot to amend the soil and bring the soil up to best condition to grow healthy vibrant plants or trees.
I can absolutely do a video on that for you.
@@GardeningInCanada please let me know when the soil amendment guide on amount of N-P-K to add based on PPM results in the soil test is available, also include pH calcium sources and how to use a measured amount of calcium amendment to raise the pH. I'm sure many of us would be interested, even going over the elements of a typical, as well as a detailed, soil test would be greatly appreciated
You are awesome 🤩
Hi. I have a question? I bought a property last summer and it has a huge garden (35X75 feet) and they didn’t plant anything last year (cause they were moving) so I went out to look at the soil and it is hard unless you wet it, and drys out super fast. I’m not sure if I need a tiller? Or if it will just fix itself? There’s also grass growing back in some spots. Please help!!
Thanks for shareing
anytime!
Really good info. New subscriber
Welcome! Hope you enjoy
Great vid! I live by a lake. All the soil is super hard grey clay. But there are several things growing in it: hydrangeas, roses, those big paddle ground covers… Are there any other flowers or shrubs that will survive this hard grey, high water table clay? Something that loves iron ? Thanks!
There are A few options such as dogwood or willow for example
@@GardeningInCanada Thank you, I will try dogwood!
I have a new construction home here in michigan . The excavator had to fill the lot approx half acre...with 3ft solid clay . What would be my approach to layer next lime then compost then top soil ? Just to get grass to grow ? Would I till after lime/ wood chips or compost? Then topsoil and seed and straw mat ? Thanks for any input 👍
are you doing a garden or just a lawn?
Just lawn
I’m wondering if I need to add clay to my soil and how I might go about doing that. I live in Florida and my raised beds are almost 100% organic matter. They dry out pretty quickly in the heat of summer. Would a bit of clay help that problem?
Very informative, thank you! I'd love to do this for 3-4 acres and start a fruit tree orchard (here in BC Canada). There is unfortunately a high water table and a few sections of pooling water during the rainy months. Can you point me in in the right direction? I'm so interested! Curious in getting gypsum and lime in big quantities 🙂
Is it pretty heavy clay? Or is it simply a high water table?
@@GardeningInCanadaA bit of both. I'd say the heavy clay increases the water table in the area but it could shed into a creek if the ground had better drainage/movement. Just wondering if you know how big operations amend their soil? Gypsum , lime & sand by the dumptruck and till it in? Right now, my best guess would be that I need to amend the subsoil so that a tree orchard could thrive?
@@trail2peak If you add sand to clay you'll get concrete.
Great video.
thanks!
The area where myy garden is was pretty good at holding water, until I tilled it up, I'm guessing I need more mulch and compost in the half that is holding water, the plants grew but only to a couple feet and are fruiting full size fruits lol, the other half of the garden is doing quite well tho
Yea it’s probably a good idea
My soil is muddy when wet and the water slips to the side
And when dry climate the soil is rock hard
Plants are dying . Is it a clay soil?
yes very heavy clay
I’m south Calgary I have about 6-8 inches of dark black clay soil and under that is almost solid grey clay with lots of rocks. I generally dig into this layer about a foot and loose it up and remove rocks. Would there be any issue with doing this? Maybe the hole I dig into the clay will create a isolated water table at the plants roots? What are your thoughts on either humid acid or worm castings mixed with clay to add texture? Or better to add perlite for drainage? When I put any garden soil even amended into a pot it will hold onto unbelievable amounts of water and absolutely won’t drain.
So grey is a sign of anaerobic/incredibly poor draining soil. Have you ever tilled the area or incorporated high levels of organic materials? Does it tend to just swallow it up if you have? gardeningincanada.net/soil-colour-testing-for-garden-soil/
Yes I dug up all the clay when I planted the flower gardens and mixed it throughout but still it seems to settle back to its previous state after a couple months of watering
Will doing the bokashi composting and putting it in a trench help amend and/or bring back to life clay soil?
The hard compacted clay here starts between 6 to 12 inches below the ground wherever I have dug around the yard and I havent found how deep it extends yet(I'm over 4ft down removing some termite damaged tree stumps, still going), the top soil is crumbly and also I have found some sandy sections. Inland Australia here, moved here at end of last summer (wetter season) and found easy to have pooling water on top after good few days rain that takes long time to dry up. I was thinking of raised beds before watching this video of yours and after watching I think that thats probably the best solution for a vegetable garden, do you agree? I do have some larger cactus potted plants I was planning to plant where I am removing some of the termite infested trees, should I put the clay back in bottom of pit I had to dig to get stump out before planting the large cactus(monsterous peruvian apple cactus) just as it was or amend the entire hole dug, I ask because unsure if I will have made a clay pot hole for lack of a better description and will I be drowning the roots by doing such(picturing a hole full of water after rest runs off) . One more question, is it unlikely or quite possibe for a raised garden bed in this scenario to EVER connect via mycellium (sorry if spelt wrong) to other raised beds or trees in this yard(cant say I saw any during digging several stumps out so far) but wasnt sure if I should spend much effort on the fungi side of things which I why I ask. Thank you for taking the time to answer,
Thats crazy! is that a majority of that land?
@@GardeningInCanada yes I would say it is, the lot is only 1/4 acre and I've dug stumps out of most parts around the yard, under one stump found some 1920s old glass perfume, poison and medicine bottles in the clay about 12 inches under the ground and its was hard digging them out cause of the compact clay(house was built in the 1940, so they'd been there a long time) and I'd gone through a couple inches of that clay before reaching those bottles
Very interesting!
I have been in Calgary working with the soils here which tend to be loam/clay base higher lime , and in most of the newer areas of home construction they put in 6 to 12 inches of loamy/clay soil having a base underneath this of grey clay, which if you plant trees to low makes a basin of death for that tree. While I have not tested the clay for alklinity the soil usually comes out at about 7.5+. I am looking to solutions other than planting higher and am looking for your thoughts on this and natural fungicides.l
i have noticed this in Saskatoon when i watch new developments. a lot of dragging old ponds
I should give up on gardening and switch to pottery. The clay I have is exactly like what you would see in a pottery class. Add in rocks that are the size of small potatoes and you have what’s in my yard.
Don't give up if you have clay soil. When I started the only things that thrived were burr clover and fox tail. Miners lettus grew 2 inches and was yellow. I've been working over 10 years it's starting to become useful soil.
Till in 50% compost to the red clay. Top with a thick layer of mulch and call it a day. Skip the gypsum.
So grateful for this video! I do have clay soil! Not sure what level. I’m testing a variety of plants in it - and I’m finding they’re all slowly developing yellowing crispy leaves - so I’m concerned that the iron is getting bound up by the acidic soil. Do you think iron tone from espoma will help? Will iron deficiency dismantle the blooming process for the dahlias? The chlorosis is not serious…just a few leaves lost per plant - but I’m watching it and I’m curious
this actually may be from anerobic soil causing a root rot. Is the yellowing combined with green viens?
@@GardeningInCanada
Hi! Yes it is. I think you may be right.
What can I do to treat this un-aerated soil? I was thinking about loading up some compost and leaf mulch in the fall and hoping it will generate earth worm. Movement. What do you propose?
I would work on pilling up organic matter and you may need to till too incorporate some
@@GardeningInCanada thank you! I also just saw your video about liquid aeration - and I’m going to try treating with some lime fertilizer to break it up as well