Clay soil

I recently moved to Tennessee and O my goodness what soil they have here :). I am from Michigan & 2 weeks ago moved here. When I dug into the soil just to get ready for Spring, I couldn't believe it. It was very hard. Can anyone please please please help me with this? I have brought alot of my plants with me to plant here, could not leave them behind. If you all remember I had about 7-8 flower gardens from a Butterfly gardens, to a tree garden. I am loving this weather her in Tennessee. But need help with this soil, don't want the plants I dug up & brought with me to die..Thanks tons a head of time....

Kitten, we have clay loam here and that does have some challenge. It is soft and easy to dig when wet but like a brick when dry and impervious to garden tools. I wet the soil thoroughly and when I planted my transplants I dug in some compost to help them out so I could get them in the ground in a hurry. No time to really improve the soil much, but I am not big on that back breaking work anyway. A few years ago I read an article on pit composting and that is the way I go in my yard. The article showed this lady from ga who had the WORST clay soil and her soil now is lovely and fluffy and dark. Here is what I have been doing according to her instructions. (my garden here is now two seasons old and the soil is looking tons better, lots of worm action too!) I dig small holes whenever I am out there and bury all my shredded paper, veggie scraps even eggshells and put a small amount of fertilizer on it and cover it up. I do this in my flower and my veggie garden. If you wet the stuff before you bury it, it breaks down pretty fast. It is alot easier than turning a big compost pile! Good luck!

The best thing to do is have a good tiller and lots of amendments (wheat straw, peat moss, Nature's Helper, etc.) for garden beds.

For planting holes follow the advice on how big to dig it and break up the clay as best as possible. I like to add amendments (it helps make clay more manageable) to a planting hole as well but the "new" advice is to use the same "dirt" that came out of the hole.

I have family in middle TN and they have dark clay while in GA we have red clay.

Over time the soil will improve but the best thing to do is start a compost bin ASAP and use everything you can to add to it.

When I lived in Virginia I had the same problem. What I ended up doing was digging my beds to 2 inches below the clay line and filling the holes with pea gravel, soil, peat and compost. The gravel insured good percolation of water. It's a lot of work to start out with but in the end it pays off because the more you mess with clay soil without a whole lot of amendment, the harder it gets.

Also, like lavender said, make sure the ground is wet before you start digging.

X

KK, I live in Knoxville, and my motto is "take out the red stuff and put in the black stuff"! I'm happy when I dig and find good soil, but I don't expect it. I fill my wheelbarrow with a mix of coir, cheap topsoil, sand, vermiculite, whatever I have on hand, and then mix that half-and-half with the hole dirt that I can crumble. The un-crumble-able red clods go to make water-routing walls. Have fun!

I personally have never grown anything anywhere except here in our Tn. clay. I admit it's a challenge but I go a little at a time. Wherever I'm gonna plant in the spring I till up the soil add any compost material I have along with sand a plain old horse poopy! The manure has already gone thru a heat cycle so its ok for plants. Then I till again and lay old carpet over the area to fend off weeds. I could never do my whole yard!! There's just too much. But I have never had plants that didn't make. Some were more prolific than others but no deaths from poor soil. Good luck and by the way where is Moscow Tn.

Tina

If it is like our east Texas red clay, you don't want to turn it while wet. It will clod up and you won't ever get the clods broke again.

Don't forget using raised beds. If the soil is too wet to work, just pile up a layer of compost/new topsoil, etc. and plant in it. The worms and roots will gradually work the top layer into the old clay, or you can just till the whole thing later in the year (if only annuals). If there is sod, just cover the area with a double-layer of newspaper first, then spread out the raised bed materials. If you can have a good load of topsoil delivered and just dumped in a pile, you can create raised beds as you need them, or have time to do them. You can also plant individual plants "high", in individual, mini-raised bed/mounds, then fill in the areas between the plant mounds with mulch to even out the whole bed and keep the plants from drying out. (Hope this is clear.) This saves topsoil, and is easier. The mulch will decompose and eventually be mixed with the soil by worms. I've done this for years, and my original heavy clay doesn't become evident until I get down 9" or more, plenty of root-growing room for most shrubs, and all perennials.

I have to use a mattock to "dig". I add a product that is sold bulk as "hardwood compost" (it comes from the bottom of the pile at the local wholesale mulch supplier), composted manure and turkey grit (small granite chips), to amend the soil. It is also best if you add phosphate when amending the soil, as clay tends to be short on it and it does not travel thru the soil rapidly like other minor elements would. I also add some epsum salts (magnesium) which promotes better branching. I can also highly recommend a small Honda tiller, it's not to heavy and is a real workhorse.

Hi there Kitten. I have a hint that may help you folks with the dreaded CLay! I have clay as well and those of us here in NZ wiyh clay use 'gypsum' a wonderful product. Prepare your garden as usual with compost etc sprinkle over the gypsum fork into garden, you can plant straight away. Clay is made up of very very fine particles which all join yogether to form a barrier that water cant get thru, and generally gives us a headache. The gypsum helps the particles to be broken down into smaller amounts ,this allows water thru and worms to take the mulch down which helps break up the clay even faster. This doesn't happen over night but it will start the process right away.
Any way there should be instructions on the bag. I hope this is of some help. I have been dealing with clay all my garden life and think I
had the problem pretty well beaten where i needed it to be. Lesley. kiwi.

kiwi is right about the stucture of clay soil. In addition to it's capacity to hold too much water, this type of soil also prevents OXYGEN from traveling through the soil, and plants can suffer tremendously from this.

While incorporating Gypsum IS beneficial, it is a slow process, but DOES work, eventually. Adding too much however, and not mixing it thoroughly, can have worsening effects and turn clay soil into what seems like concrete. FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ON THE BAG like kiwi says !

To effectively ammend clay soil, you have to physically create "space" between the clay particles, miniscule as they are, to keep them from sticking together and forming those thick clods. COARSE soil ammendments are ideal for this purpose, the MORE COARSE, the better, and the longer lasting their effects. This type of ammendment takes a long time to decompose, so it maintains these "gaps" between the clay particles for much longer than "fine" ammendments.

I have dealt with heavy clay soils for years. I use primarilly Redwood soil ammendment which has nitrogen added to it, and LIBERAL amounts of it. In addition, I incorporate COARSE BUILBERS SAND to the mixture. For my heavy clay, this works beautifully.

Depending on what TYPE of clay soil you have, you may NOT need to add sand. (Some clay soils have sand in them but it get's gummed up with the clay and doesn't accomplish much.) COMPOST is excellent if you have a compost pile, or can purchase it at a reasonable price. It too, is coarse and loaded with nutrients which start working immediately to improve the soil.

Many cities across the country offer composted ammendments to homeowners for a small fee, thanks to green waste programs.

I personally, would discourage the use and addition of soil ammendments that have "sludge" or sewer type by products in them. They too, tend to HOLD WATER, and can defeat the whole purpose when trying to improve CLAY.
(If you look at bags of this stuff, it's usually very WET in the bag)

You really need to ammend clay soils to a decent depth to make any substantial improvements in it. 2 or 3 inches isn't quite deep enough, as most plant's roots go MUCH deeper than this, so I ususally go down at least 12 " and often times, deeper.

Walking on clay soil just exacerbates the problem, because it causes compaction, which makes it even MORE impervious to aeration and drainage, so if you are ammending an area where you will be walking on a regular basis, it's best to add stepping stones or some other surface to walk on, or create path's etc. and then don't walk on the good part.

It's pretty hard to "over ammend" clay soil. The more coarse ammendments you add to it over time, the better it gets, the earthworms will REVELL in it and reproduce like crazy, and their activity will be an adjunct aid to your efforts.

Depending on WHAT you want to grow in this newly ammended soil, you MAY need to ammend on a regular basis, as this organic matter you add DOES decompose and doesn't last indefinitely. Flower beds and areas where you will be changing plantings on a regular basis will need ammending far more often than say an area for trees or shrubs, which are more "permanent" plantings and won't be being moved.

A pretty good general guideline for seeing if you've ammended well enough, is to wait a few days after you have incorporated the ammendment, and while the soil is "moist", (not newly watered...) grab a handful of it and form it into a ball, but don't compress it too much. Drop the ball, and see if it comes apart when it makes contact with the ground. If it falls apart, you've done a good job. If not, ADD MORE AMMENDMENT.

Yes, it CAN be a lot of labor and digging, but it's worth it in the end, and your plants will grow infinitely better, and you'll save money rather than buying plants which continue to fail had you not done it.

If you have a large garden, and want to have a steady supply of ammendments, rather than having to constantly be buying it, then a compost pile will save you an enormous amount of money, and you can make your own ammendment for FREE...and it's usually better than anything you BUY. All it takes is the initial cost to build a bin. The rest is all done with free materials which unfortunately get wasted being taken to landfills.

Composting is easy, and not rocket science. With the money you save from having to BUY ammendments, you can buy more plants and have a better garden !

I am a built up bed fan ...and if you can't use built up beds ...no dig gardening works a treat.The worms will fix it all up if you use lots of manure ...washed river sand (or soil) and fibre stuff such as pea straw,or hay ...grass clippings ...shredded newspaper. All of the advice here is fantastic ...you will learn as you go along.Good luck:)
PS worked properly clay can be a great soil base.
chrissy

There's nothing like a prybar to take the rocks out of clay soil. A prybar is a long iron bar flattened and flared on one end, the business end. Your clay will be like butter to it and your shoulders will thank you.

Chrissy,

That is a really pretty picture. I don't think that I would ever think to take a picture with a spider web in the middle. What is the name of the tree with the pretty blue flowers on the left?

In case Chrissy doesn't respond, it looks like a Jacaranda to me...

We've got some pretty heavy clay here in this part of Wisconsin, too. I feel the pain of clay gardeners. Clay soil that hasn't ever been tilled or tended might as well be concrete, particularly when it bakes in the sun. I agree with others who've said that clay is infinitely easier to work when it's moist. I usually work a new area after a rain, or I water it down first and wait until it's ready to be worked. (You can take a lump of clay soil in your hand and squeeze it lightly. If the soil holds its shape like a lump of Play-Do, it's too wet.)

You've already gotten such great tips that I hesitate to add anything except to say good luck learning to work the soil in your new home state. For what it's worth, I'm a big fan of raised beds and berms. If you can afford to order some topsoil from your local garden center it may well be worth it. My berm bed has been very easy to work for the most part. The one bed that I started from scratch has also done fairly well, but I worked in quite a bit of compost before I planted it. Without the raised bed, it suffers from poor drainage. I'm actually thinking of removing the plants this spring and reworking it to raise it up a bit.

Thanks Jasper. I remember another picture that Dale in Florida had posted previously that had jacaranda in it. I had never seen this tree, and was so disappointed to find out that it only lived in zones 9 and above. I guess that I'll just have to take a trip south to see it.

my father in law has the solution for clay we live in NE Ga and have nothing but clay, he digs down and adds shredded paper shredded leaves and a handful of red worms then mixes in the "dirt " from the hole if you have a little time you could cover with cardboard and water it liberally