I moved to a small town in NE texas in 2004 and have been gardening in the black gumbo soil since 2005. We amend with expanded shale and a compost manure mixture with some luck. I have had luck with several things but struggle with ferns and hostas.
7B black gumbo gardens
We have the same soil here in Collin County. We have successfully grown ferns and hosta's when the soil was amended and we kept the plants out of direct sun. We've had problems with the ferns when they get too much exposure to direct sunlight.
Compost, compost, compost, with a little Gypsum if need be. Clay soil is very rich and you can grow almost anything if you get enough water. The problem with Hostas and Ferns may be the heat more than the soil. When clay soil gets dry it cracks, especially black gumbo. This dries out the root and also sometimes breaks them apart. Gypsum will help with the cracking and will help water to permeate into the soil, instead of running off and will make it muck easier to dig. But compost is the most important thing to remember.
kenboy, how does one add the gypsum, esp. in areas already planted? Thanks!
Maybe it depends what kind of ferns, too?
In the meantime, while you're amending the whole area, probably you could make little raised beds or hummocks (whichever suits your style) with rich and well-draining soil.
Wood ferns seem to be doing the best. What other types of ferns would work?
ok, dumb question time lol
what is gypsum? And how do you get it?
Here is a simple explanation from Google
http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00461/gypsum.htm
Gypsum works on a molecular level by not allowing clay molecules to lay so close together. This makes it much easier to dig and it also helps water to permeate through. We have two big Oak trees in our driveway and it is bare red clay. Every few years we treat with gypsum to help water to permeate into the soil, instead of running off, which sometimes happens if we have a short fast rain. It is also great where you have a bog area that just won't dry up. It will sweeten the soil a little but that is easily fixed with sulphur. You can get it at most nurseries or Lows, Home Depot.
Gypsum= calcium sulfate ,Texas has large Gyp deposits around Sweetwater until my retirement I worked as a mechanic in a sheetrock plant owned by US Gypsum....
This is from a 2008 article on Aggie Horticulture website. The site was redesigned last year and has an amazing search engine.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/2008/jul08/FallGdn.html
Gypsum (calcium sulfate) added to a ‘sticky’ soil makes it more workable. Gypsum is a neutral product which does not increase or decrease the soil’s alkalinity. Not only is it a good soil conditioner, but it also furnishes certain amounts of calcium, which may prevent such minor element disorders as blossom-end rot of tomatoes and cabbage leaf-tip burn.
so it is a powder that you work into the soil, if I am understanding correctly.
It is a granule and all you need to do is spread it on the ground, it works itself in. How easy it that?
ha! cool, I'll look into that if needed.
remember sheetrock is 99% Gypsum so old use sheet rock is a good sourse of gyp just soak the paper loose and viola there you have gyp
I wish I knew this a couple years ago. We have been remodeling and I could have
been recycling our sheetrock scraps plus helping our soil. Thanks for the tip!
a person could load up a ton of that on Craigs List or Freecyle I imagine.