[Diddy Gardener]

Morning!

I have four new raised beds. Two are going to be for veggies (a mixture of root veggies and salad/peas etc) and two for annual cut flowers.

We got a load of top soil in the autumn...REALLY heavy stuff, sticky and clump-forming. We dug in a load of manure and compost and left it over the winter.

Looking at it now, it's still really heavy and clump-forming, it's nigh on impossible the get other stuff dug in to the clumps.

So I have a couple of questions. What would you suggest we dig in to lighten up the soil and get it to break up a bit? Also, would what we dig in be different for root veggies, other non-root veggies and cut flowers?

Lots of questions...but the sun is shining and thoughts turn to the garden and the season ahead! 

[sunshineband]

I don't suppose you have any leaf mould? That would be ideal.

Another good option is to dig in coir compost, which is currently stocked by Home Bargains and is available on line as cococompost. You reconstitute it with water and then dig it in. Made a big difference to my sticky ole clay last year

[gremlin]

I dont think soil can be sorted out instantly. It takes years of patience digging in masses of organic stuff each year to see a real difference.  I'll use anything.....manure, compost, straw, fresh leaves, paper. Though I don't use peat, to save the peat bogs. Each year the soil gets a little better, and I have turned my soil over five years  from dust and gravel which set as hard as concrete each summer and needed a pickaxe, to something that now looks like the fluffy soil you see on TV gardening shows.  So....dig in whatever you can get that is cheap, or free.  Don't expect instant results.

[Christine]

I'm with gremlin. 

[Diddy Gardener]

Thank you so much for the replies...sounds like hard work/lots of leaf mould/lots of stuff to break up the clumps/patience is required!

Thanks chaps 

[Nobbie]

At the bottom of my allotment I had a really heavy patch of sticky clay, the horsetail loved it! I put in raised beds and added lots of leafmold and sharp sand, although any organic matter would do. That was three years ago and I had cause to dig it over recently and it is much improved. The sharp sand has really help separate out the clumps. The main problem with clay soil is that the particle size is very small and they stick together, so adding sharp sand helps to break this up. Wickes do 25kg bags for about £1.50 and I could get 10 into my Peugeot 107.

[Snoop]

I'm with gremlin too. But you do start to see results even in the second year. I happened to have access to loads of hay in my first year and just piled it on inches deep as a mulch. Every year since, my soil has improved, but that hay made a world of difference.

[Diddy Gardener]

Excellent, thank you. We're off to get as much well rotted manure (free) as we can fit in the car later today. Also, Home Bargains have very cheap coir compost for sale - so will be getting a load of that too. How about wood shavings...we get huge bales for the chicken coop, would that work too?

[Snoop]

The only things I've read about wood shavings is that they take a long time to break down and they take nitrogen from the soil as they do so. I've never used them.

Are the wood shavings sold as bedding/litter material? If so, I presume that means the wood hasn't been treated with anything you'd rather didn't go into your soil and potentially your food.

If the wood shavings are safe, what do you do with them once they've been through the chicken coop?

[Aled]

Similar problem: I'm going into growing season 4, and my soil has improved year on year. Wood ash, home made compost, a bag of soil conditioner, and lots of horse manure. All have I believe helped.
Cheers
Aled 

[ptarmigan]

It does get better honestly!  Collect leaves in the Autumn, rot them down for a year or two and add them, as much home made compost as possible, mushroom compost, sea weed, manure - spent compost from pots at home.  It all helps.  4 years in and the soil in my raised beds, which was truly awful big clay lumps - now looks so much better.

[Headgardener22]

I'm with Gremlin as well. The only thing is you'll probably have to keep it up (unless your normal soil is good and will mix in). I'm on fairly heavy clay and if I don't add lots of compost every year it reverts back to the underlying soil.

[Diddy Gardener]

The wood shavings which have been through the chicken coop go back into the garden after six months or so.

[Snoop]

I've got no first-hand experience of wood shavings, but if you're satisfied they are not toxic in any way and you let them rot down well beforehand, as much as anything because of the chicken droppings in them, it sounds to me like you should be able to add them to your vegetable patch.

[Plotmaster]

3 year old woodchip paths are added to the compost bin as browns in the layering as they are nearly soil and I renew the paths as I go.