What to do with heavy, lumpy clay soil

I am discovering that even though I have some lovely healthy plants growing in my garden beds, the soil is not good, and I'm surprised. Digging to plant new things I'm hitting serious resistance from clay and rocks. The plants don't die after planting (I really baby everything) but the soil is difficult to work with. Is there a 'quick fix' for rotten soil without disturbing the existing plants? We have dug in as much compost and mulch as we can, but it isn't changing much. Any help is appreciated.

Well, I have the same problem--and I am not a professional gradener, but this is what the guy at my favorite nursery told me to do--I can't tell you if it has completely worked yet or not because it is a work in progress, but it certainly seems to be helping! He told me to remove any mulch I had, and get some good, enriched garden soil, as well as some fertilizer. If your plants are really close together, you might have to dig some out and put them back in when you are done. He said put a layer of fertilizer, a layer of the garden soil, and then till them together, making sure you can get as deeply as you can. Put back any plants you had to take out. Then shred up some newspaper and cover everywhere with it--except over your plants of course. Then put in your mulch. Then when you compost, do it heavily for the next two-three years. In between, fertilize as often as you safely can. Since I have started this, my plants are healthier all the way around, and my garden looks beautiful. Like you said, My plants were healthy because I babied them as well, but they look even better now. It is alot of work, but it is well worth it. Good Luck!--Amy

Where I live in Tennessee, we have red clay and ROCKS. I mean tons of rocks, big rocks- small rocks, and everything in between. It is so bad that I can't even dig my own holes, so hubby has to do all my diggin- that is a first for me. What soil we have is red clay. Before moving to Tennessee, I came from North Carolina- where the soil is much, much different. So what I do is remove all of the rocks I can, then mix in with my clay some topsoil, a little sand, and well rotted manure. It seems to do pretty well, everything I have planted (roses, crepe myrtles, shrubs, tiger grasses, and carnations) are really beautiful and thriving.

Making raised beds would be the ultimate answer to horrible soil.

Thanks everyone. It's all good advice, pretty much what I thought would be best myself, but as a beginner I enjoy feedback. Those rocks are huge TN gardener 2008! Mine are only the size of golf balls, nothing larger than a tennis ball (rare). The worst offender is already a raised bed! I'm now pretty sure it's ground from under an addition that the previous owners put on the house. I'll use the advice you've all given me.

What was the purpose of them creating a raised bed is they used the same soil, DUH!

Soil is expensive to get rid of, I suspect they had to dig some stuff out to build the addition and didn't want to pay to dispose of the dirt they dug out, so they made a raised bed out of it. Not everyone's a gardener! LOL

I have the same rotten soil. I read that clay soil does have a lot of nutrients in it and if you can get it workable it's a plus. I am still working on mine by adding peat and sharp sand a little at a time. Since I am working small areas at a time, in unworked areas I am letting plants with deep roots grow. The deep roots can get down in the clay and help it. This is still a work in progress.

Thanks kthlnmldy. My 'common' sense told me that what you are doing is what needs to be done, but I think I was hoping for a magic answer--you know, elves toiling over the soil during the dark hours... But there are rewards. I have some beautiful plants, and it's good to hear that there are nutrients in clay. That's a plus!

I worked for a while for a guy who ran a nursery that wasn't in a greenhouse, he just grew all his shady plants outside in a gully behind his house. His personal recipe for soil amendations was i/3 peatmoss, 1/3 sand and 1/3 this sludge he bought from the nearest big city water and sewage treatment place. What he told me was never to underestimate the power of sand. Some of the raised beds around his house and in that gulley were ALL sand, and he would buy truckloads of roses and hostas and anything else you could name and actually grow them in that sand until people bought them. Even if it took years, the plants never looked like they were suffering. They flourished! I don't pretend to understand how this could be, but it certainly seemed to me like something worth knowing. Since then, I add bags and bags of play sand to my flower beds every year, and every year the soil gets lighter and lighter, fluffier, easier to cultivate, easier todig in, move things around if necessary, and my raised bed with herbs is practically all sand, (with a little topsoil and peatmoss mixed in) and the herbs always seem to love it.

Maybe you could experiment with a small amount of your soil and some sand and maybe some peatmoss too, in a wheelbarrow, and see if you can come up with a recipe that will help lighten and fluff up your clay soil. I suppose it couldn't hurt, especially if you tried it on a small scale first. You could also start a compost pile.

Melis

In MY end of Tn. we don't have rocks! I wish we did have some pretty rocks. The dirt has clay in it, though, and adding sand is the best thing you can do for it! Peat moss and coir bricks, if added in moderation along with compost is great for clay soil! Good luck!

I had the same problem in NW Ohio. Lots of rocks and hard clay. Yes, as others have said sand will help a lot. I also did a lot of composting with grass clippings and leaves. I even had neighbors donate large quantities of leaves. In addition, instead of throwing out vegetable waste from the kitchen I bagged it and then periodically dug it into the soil and never had any insect or rodent problem. Each year I took out as many rocks as I could. After 10 years the rocks were totally gone and I was getting large fat worms, which didn't exist in the garden before. Good luck.

In my neck of the woods, we have clay too. But a local arborist discouraged me from adding sand. In our soil, sand + clay = cement. He suggested instead using leaf humus and organic material. We've double dug lots of humus into our soil and it's turning out well. Drains good and the plants love the nutrients in the humus. Worms love it too and they're everywhere breaking up the clay for me!

Sand is fine if you also incorporate organic amendments. If you don't have the organic amendments then yes, it can make something along the lines of concrete but the organic material will prevent that from happening.

Thanks for all the great advise. I'm adding sand (mostly), humus and peatmoss every time I work with the soil around the plants. I don't see any results yet of course, but I'll be more aggressive in the fall, when I move plants around.

I have the same problem and I know that clay does have lots of nutrients in it. It used to be a seabed here and the only problem I have is the wall along the north side. Too much lime from the wall. I'll be building a raised be there. The only thing I do is amend as I plant. The bigger the root system will be, the more I amend. And sand is okay if you use the right kind of sand.

Have fun!

We have clay and rocks here, too. When I build beds from scratch I do it the right way, building raised beds with good soil and compost. But with the existing beds I inherited when we moved here I tend to amend bit by bit, adding composted manure to planting holes and top dressing as I go. Is it a perfect solution? Nope. Does it work for me? Yep.

I think the secret to succeeding at amending an existing bed is 1) to work with plants that will tolerate clay soil, and 2) keep top dressing and amending the soil as you go. It does take forever to amend clay to a point where it's got a high degree of organic material, but if you keep working with the right kind of plants you can get pretty good results. It's been a bit of trial and error with me, plus some research. I use the plant finder at Blue Stone Perennials www.bluestoneperennials.com to help me find plants that can handle clay.

A few standbys that don't seem to mind my clay soil:

Rudbeckias
Coneflowers
Shasta daisies
Sedums (haven't tried the creeping kind, but 'Autumn Joy' does wonderfully here)
Delphinium x belladonna (not so much the d. elatum)
Hostas
Monarda
Asiatic lilies
Ajuga
Dicentra
Helenium
Daylilies
Cranesbill/hardy gerenium
Phlox paniculata (I have 'David' and it's very nice)

Those are just a few of my favorites, and there are many more that will put up with clay. Sometimes the poor soil actually keeps normally invasive species in check, so there's at least one little advantage. ;)

Good luck working with your soil!

Yes. Not sand without the organic matter. As you said: cement.--Melis

Raised beds are fine for vegetables, but not everyone thinks they are attractive for ornamentals in the landscape. One thing you could do is have someone excavate your beds down to 7 inches this fall. Fill in 6 inches of a mixture of DRY and GREEN (alive) vegetable matter- hay, leaves, grass clippings, etc. Actually, you can just put 4 or 5 layers of the matter- it doesn't have to be mixed beforehand. Just have about 50-50. Then sprinkle a balanced fertilizer (example 20-20-20) on the top and top out with a couple of inches of topsoil. The area will settle as the matter decomposes, and you may have to later add another inch or two of topsoil. Water well, and water periodically over the winter if you have a dry season.

I think sometimes when people hear "raised beds" they automatically think of something built up with landscape timbers or some other material to create sides. I actually just create berms and they don't particularly look raised, but I'm still enhancing the soil. Aesthetically it doesn't look bad at all--it just looks like a flower bed. :)

dp72, I agree that lasagna beds are a great way to go. I started the bed on the SE side of my house that way and will probably create everything else I build the same way from now on. Have you looked into lasagna gardening, Maggie?