Newbie with a clay soil allotment -help!

  • 17 Replies
  • 5441 Views
*

Yorkie

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: North Yorkshire
  • 26331
Re: Newbie with a clay soil allotment -help!
« Reply #15 on: September 07, 2013, 19:18 »
Well done, WTW  :)
I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days all attack me at once...

*

gremlin

  • Experienced Member
  • ***
  • Location: Berkshire
  • 384
Re: Newbie with a clay soil allotment -help!
« Reply #16 on: September 07, 2013, 22:39 »
Congratulations on your own piece of ground.

Whatever you have clay or sand, you can only really turn it round with lots of organic matter. Compost, manure, whatever.  But you need time.  5 years is too short, think in term of 7-10 years to make a permanent change.  Of course each year will be slightly better then the last, so you will be making progress all the time.

I have dug in 200mm layer of manure into my trashed plot every year for the last 4 years. I can just now begin to see the improvement. Less flooding, more moisture retention in the recent drought.
But still a long way to go.

 

Sometimes my plants grow despite, not because of, what I do to them.

*

Kristen

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: Suffolk
  • 4065
    • K's Garden blog
Re: Newbie with a clay soil allotment -help!
« Reply #17 on: September 08, 2013, 02:11 »
Heavy clay here too. Vegetable patch on an area of virgin ground that was just scrub.

I  started with "lazy raised beds" - beds 4' wide (max. width to allow reach from either side), paths about 18" wide - wide enough that you can kneel in them is good :)

I dug one spade's depth of soil out of the paths and heaped that on the beds.  That lowering of the paths (well, "raising of the beds" if you like!) improved the drainage hugely without going to a lot more trouble / expense. That was the total raising of the beds, other than the manure I have added since.





The "shoulders" of the edges of the beds do tend to wander into the paths, and have to be tided up every couple of years. After about 5 years I got around to finding some wood for the edges and it all looks much smarter now. But it worked just fine before.


Before


After

My plot was ploughed by the local farmer, and rotavated, before I started using it.  I have never walked on the beds since, and they get very little digging (most of it only when harvesting spuds / parsnips).

I put a generous layer ("2 - 3") of well rotted manure onto the beds every year in late Autumn (not the bed for roots - Parsnips / Carrots) and that gets worked in over the winter (I don't disturb the bed for Brassicas at all, they like their roots in very solid ground)

Within a couple of years it was performing really well, compared to Day One.  Drainage was fine (its still sticky to try to work it when wet), and plants have cropped well. The soil becomes easier to work year on year.



xx
new allotment,heavy clay soil.wet ground.

Started by hunlom on Grow Your Own

16 Replies
8908 Views
Last post December 03, 2009, 12:14
by crh75
xx
New allotment, clay soil conditioning and taties

Started by Rich on Grow Your Own

36 Replies
8507 Views
Last post March 23, 2011, 19:48
by Christine
xx
Clay Soil

Started by willnbirdie on Grow Your Own

40 Replies
11074 Views
Last post April 26, 2010, 12:19
by WebSiteEvo
xx
Clay soil.

Started by Benandbill on Grow Your Own

13 Replies
4766 Views
Last post September 01, 2011, 22:50
by Ricey
 

Page created in 0.324 seconds with 38 queries.

Powered by SMFPacks Social Login Mod
Powered by SMFPacks SEO Pro Mod |