garden clay

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velveteena Seattle, WA Oct 14, 2007

Well, this is fun. I had always HEARD of clay in the soil, and I always visualized the deep red stuff you see in Hawaii and Oklahoma. Our new home features very "rich" veins of the gray stuff I used as a kid in art class. Has anyone ever tried to dig and play with this clay? I am enriching the soil as I go, but will apparently never get all of it. Any remarks about that?

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Oct 14, 2007

Clay comes in lots of different colors depending on what minerals are present in your soil. When I was growing up in Ohio we had some of that same gray clay and I remember playing with it when I was little. If you keep adding amendments as you go along you should be fine, just be careful when you buy those plants that say they need "perfect drainage", you'll probably have trouble with them.

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Redtootsiepop Livermore, CA(Zone 9b) Oct 15, 2007

Hi Velveteena - I have alot of the grayish clay here in Oregon. I've had alot of luck just amending the soil as I go - and in the spring I throw down a good layer of compost & composted manure everywhere. The clay is not gone, by any means, but other than one casualty not accepting the wetness - everything has been fine. I do plant smaller plants, which may help a bit. I do get a fair amount of sun in most areas which helps it to dry out. The clay is rich in nutrients, so its not completely bad.

I let the kids play with the hunks of clay that I dig out, If I hit a particularly big hunk I try to get a good clunker out.

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kTalia Littleton, CO(Zone 5a) Oct 17, 2007

Here where I live in Colorado, all we have is clay. As Redtootsiepop mentioned, it has a lot of good nutrients, but very little in the way of Nitrogen and Oxygen. Don't add sand to loosen it up is all I would add to what others have said.

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