[Bev]

  Hi, I am in my third year of my garden in Northamptonshire where we have very heavy claggy clay mud!

I dug up some squares of my lawn and have been trying to grow my own veg. Every time I harvest some veg I put a sack or two of well rotted horse manure into each square (1.20m square) and give it a really good weed and dig over with a fork and try to bash up the lumps with the fork or rake.

My soil is still really lumpy and the lumps are really dry and hard to break up even though we water it almost daily. When it is wet the lumps won't break up because they just all stick together to make bigger lumps.

I have tried to grow root veg like potatos and carrots to help break up the soil but this doesn't seem to have helped either.

Any tips please?

Bev

[Ice]

I am in the south of the county and appreciate your problem.  As well as the well rotted manure dig in a load of sharp sand.

[Yorkie]

I think you need to persevere with what you're doing by adding lots of organic matter (and sharp / horticultural sand as Ice said).

Carrots are unlikely to be happy as they prefer well-drained sandy soil to clay.  Spuds are a good idea though.

I would recommend mulching too in the spring / summer as this will help retain moisture.

[Bev]

Hi, thanks yorkie and ice. I will keep trying. My Mums seems to be quite good now after 20 years of digging! Mind you she has a much bigger area and uses a rotavator but I don't think I could get it into my little patches!

Bev