[puffinstuff]

Hi folks,
I'm trying to prepare the front garden for planting veg but there is some heavy orangy clay soil which i'm not sure if i need to dig out or jsut cover with compost which i've got quite a bit of. The clay is as a result of some footings that where dug for an extension and was brought to the surface.  There is some topsiol on the land as well.  Any advice would be useful.

puffinstuff

[Yorkie]

The orangey clay stuff will be sub-soil, which has no nutrients in it and in which plants will not thrive without you vastly improving the soil - with lots of organic matter.

If you can avoid the clay, do so.

[Kate and her Ducks]

Don't take my word for it as I am a novice in the veg world but I had been told that heavy clay soil is actually generally high in nutrients as they tend not to get washed out (mainly as the drainage is terrible which is a different story!). The problem is it's a blooming nightmare to work with in terms of digging and planting and it waterlogs when it chucks it down and bakes to concrete when it is hot. You will need to dig in loads of compost plus maybe some sand to improve the texture and draainage. Raised beds can help all this a lot.






Guess what type of soil I have :oops:

[Yorkie]

Kate, you're right that clay-based topsoil does retain nutrients far better than a chalky or sandy soil which is more free-draining.

However, the fact that the clay in question is orange, and also that it was brought to the surface when extension footings were dug, makes me think that this isn't topsoil.

I agree with the raised beds suggestion (I never think of them   )