Good morning! If you, like me, are gardening in clay soil you know that clay can be..
uh challenging is probably putting it lightly. Clay soil can be very difficult to work with- it's
heavy, it's dense, it's difficult for delicate plant roots to penetrate. The saving grace of
clay soil is that it typically is fairly high in nutrients and does hold moisture. The key is
unlocking those nutrients so that they're accessible to your plants and loosening up that
soil texture. So today I wanted to share with you my top methods for improving clay soil in
the garden. Now you will know you have clay soil because when you dig down into it and grab a clump
when you go to try and crumble it it typically does not crumble
but rather will form into a sticky ball reminiscent of potter's clay.
Now compare that to clay soil that's been amended and when I grab a chunk of this
it crumbles apart in my hands rather than forming a sticky ball. Now one of the most common tidbits
of advice given for dealing with clay soil is to add organic matter. And this is great advice
don't get me wrong, but it may not be entirely clear what exactly is meant by organic matter
and there are so many options how do you know where to start? Organic matter basically refers to
anything from nature, so plant or animal material and these materials are ideally used after they've
partially rotted down or in a composted state. And as far as what the best option for you is,
that's going to depend it's going to depend on where you live and what your resources are. So
my advice is to use what you have. I've got leaves galore- you may have pine needles. We
use leaf mold, grass clippings, straw or hay from local farmers, or green manure from chopped down
cover crop residues. Other great options include biochar, earthworm castings, composted wood chips
and good old compost. And you might be asking 'okay so I add organic matter... how exactly do I
do that?' Well the best and easiest way that I've found is just to add a layer of organic matter,
at a minimum two to three inches thick you can go up to six to eight inches, to the top of your beds
and then dig or fork that in to incorporate it into the top soil. Now if you're using compost or
composted animal manure, I will typically add that to my beds in the spring before planting
and with that you really don't even have to work it into the soil. Just dump a layer on top and
it will act as mulch and add nutrients and organic matter to the soil eventually working its way down
into the top soil. Now adding organic matter to the soil helps improve the structure of clay
soil in a couple different key ways. First the addition of organic matter creates aggregates of
the soil particles, physically separating them and allowing for better drainage and tilth, which is
kind of why you get this crumbly effect versus the sticking together effect of the clay soil.
Secondly the addition of organic matter serves as food for earthworms and other beneficial
soil microorganisms and through this feeding process the worms and other beneficial organisms
are converting that organic matter into nutrients essentially fertilizer for the plants in your
garden. Worms in particular also improve soil structure and aeration by way of the holes
that they dig while they're tunneling through the soil. And please ignore the all too common advice
of adding sand to your clay soil to improve texture. Soil scientists warn that the ending
result can actually be worse to deal with than the clay soil itself. Another tactic I like to use is
raise it up-- and by that I mean getting your beds or your rows or wherever you're planting
elevated, even if it's just a little bit. As you may have noticed clay tends to get waterlogged
and compacted very easily. Raising up your beds helps fight these issues in two different ways.
First of all the raised beds tend to drain more quickly. It also helps that I have created kind
of a water a waterway or a diversion of the water with these lower walkways so the water
tends to drain there and then drain out of the garden versus just sitting in my planting areas.
Also by having devoted beds and walkways I'm not tempted to walk in my planting areas which would
just exacerbate the problem of compaction. As I mentioned clay soil is dense and sticky and tends
to not get enough oxygen. Because of this texture aerating is one of the best things that you can do
for clay soil particularly when you're starting out. Now aeration is simply introducing pockets
into the soil that oxygen can penetrate. Now as I mentioned earthworms will do that job for you.
Moles, as much as I hate their presence in the garden, will also aerate your soil for you. So if
anyone can figure out a way to train moles just to work in the non-planted section of garden please
let me know, I would love to utilize them. And then a few other tactics that I use for aeration
are using tools like garden or digging fork or a broad fork and utilizing clay busting plants.
A broad fork and a digging fork work in similar ways in that they are introducing
air pockets into the soil without disrupting it to the point where you're causing damage.
And another great method of aerating the soil is using clay busting plants. So you see one of
my favorites, you may have heard me mention it in other videos, but daikon or tiller radish is one
of the ultimate clay busters. It has a nice long tap root that really busts through that clay soil
and when those roots rot away they leave these nice big pockets and again adding organic matter
to the soil as they rot. And there are plenty of other crops that you can use to bust up clay soil.
Anything with a long deep taproot and plants with extensive fibrous root systems-- so rye is a
really good one for that as well. And last but not least, cover that soil. I try to never ever leave
soil exposed in my garden-- now this is important for all soils, but of particular importance for
clay soil. If clay soil is left exposed the heavy rains that we tend to get in the spring and fall
will further compact and erode our valuable topsoil. By heavily applying natural mulches
I'm avoiding those two problems as well as adding valuable organic matter to the soil. Now I tend
to use things that are very similar to what I mentioned in the section about adding organic
matter. Grass clippings are a favorite of mine, as well as leaf mulch, straw, chopped up cover
crops and I focus on at least getting everything heavily mulched in the fall. if I come into plant
in the spring and the mulch is still too heavy I'll just pull back a little area so that I have
room to plant and leave everything else in place. But if you live in an area where like slugs in
heavy mulch are a problem in the spring you can pull everything off your beds and just throw it in
your compost pile. By taking these steps, whether it's all of them or just incorporating a few,
you will begin improving your clay soil almost immediately. But don't expect amazing loamy loose
soil your very first season. Improving clay soil is a process and it does take some commitment.
I will say though that I personally, by using all of these techniques, have drastically improved my
garden soil in about three years. You can see the difference here- I went from this to this
and honestly my garden has never performed better. Now be sure to let me know if you have any other
tried and true techniques for improving clay soil. And if you find content like this helpful consider
subscribing to my channel- Growfully with Jenna. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time!