welcome to Hort tube where we talk all
things gardening my name is Jim Putnam
and today we're going to talk about
planting and clay soils today I won't
just be talking about clay based soils
but any type of soil that doesn't drain
very well between rains or stays wet
between rains and how to amend those
when we're planting woody shrubs and you
know flowering shrubs and trees and any
sort of gardening we're doing to improve
those soils and allow them to drain
better so let's go over the tools we
might use in clay based soils first of
all I buy all fiberglass tools I started
my landscape company 20 years ago in
1996 and some of the tools I purchased
at that time that were fiberglass handle
tools I still have them today this rake
included it's been out of shape but this
garden rake and I have been together
quite a bit over the years this is
definitely a tool you're going to want
to have as a garden rake and the main
use for this when we're planting is
actually going to be to pull existing
mulch and pine straw out of the way
we're going to use this to clear an area
around where we're going to be planting
so that we don't mix any of the existing
mulch or pine straw into the new
planting hole what might be the most
important tool when we're planting in
clay is actually a pickaxe
this one this one again I've had for a
very very long period of time it's hold
up extremely well with this fiberglass
handle there are two ends to this
pickaxe one is the axe in I see people
trying to dig with this in this is not
the digging in this is if you find a
root or a rock or something that you
need to remove from the hole that's what
we use this for this one's extremely
dull I need to actually sharpen it the
other end is actually the big again the
pick in will use this well and I'll show
you will slam this down into the ground
and just pull back on it kind of easy
and just break up the clay and then
we'll use the shovel to do the rest of
the work next up is the shovel the thing
we're going to remove the soil from the
hole after we use the pickaxe to break
it up I'm not going to try in clay base
oils to use a full sized shovel like
this to break up clay soils it's just
not it's just very very difficult it's
actually discouraging I don't use these
at all we didn't when we landscape I
quickly found out
Leon the area that I'm in especially
anywhere around Raleigh or central North
Carolina has a lot of clay and you just
can't stick this thing in the ground
very readily so we don't use it what we
actually uses a trenching shovel the
shovel is about maybe five inch five
inches in width and maybe twelve inches
long and this one was probably about an
inch longer when I purchased it I've
worn it out over the years but this tool
once we use the pickaxe to break the
soil up a little bit this tool will
slide right into the clay and easily
remove it so when you're shopping for a
shovel and you have clay in your yard
and you're only going to buy one shovel
because these fiberglass tools can be
expensive buy trenching shovel and not a
regular digging Spade okay so let's talk
about what soil amendment we're going to
use more planting in the clay
first of all we'll want to avoid
anything that says potting mix or
potting soil or anything like that these
are not going to be good for woody
shrubs or trees or fruiting plants or
burying plants even if you were putting
your shrub in a container this is a
container mix but it's a container mix
that's best for annuals maybe flowering
perennials your summer flowering
container plants or vegetable plants but
really not for any kind of woody shrubs
or trees so we'll avoid this and move to
the next thing we're also going to want
to avoid peat moss when we're planting
in clay that's one of the components
it's in the potting soil this has can
wick you know 20 or 30 or maybe more
times at some own late and water up this
is a decayed plant material that's
decayed over generations and
degenerations
and it's fantastic for holding water in
place not a good idea in clay soils
because you're digging a little clay pot
if you put something in it that will
wick up water all the water is going to
run into your newly dug clay pot and
then it's this materials going to soak
it up and keep it in place and end up
drowning your plants so just not a good
idea in clay soils the next thing I've
got here is a bag of cow manure similar
similar results to peat moss and potting
soil this is going to hold too much
water in place I believe for planting
and clay it
a very very heavy material and it does
tend to stay wet between rains and
between waterings you know this bag
right here weighs you know it's the same
sized bag as some of these other ones
and it weighs double its just it it has
a amazing capacity of holding water
which is great in some planting
situations but not very good in planting
in the clay the next thing we have is
compost in this product happens to be a
chunkier compost you can kind of feel on
the outside of the bag and see if it's
got any material left in it that hasn't
been fully composted down the soil if it
does this actually works great in the
clay my only concern with compost
typically as we don't know what the pH
is on compost when we buy it it's not
going to matter if you're putting two or
three shovel fulls in a hole for a tree
or a shrub it's not going to affect pH
that much but if you were continually
using this product for something like
vegetable gardening or something like
that you would want to check the pH and
make sure that it's not going to raise
or lower your pH too much over time but
this would be a good product to use in
clay I'd like something even a little
more chunky if it's a very heavy clay
and for that we'll use soil conditioner
something that should be labeled soil
conditioner or pine bark soil
conditioner those are ideal materials
and often open this up this is literally
fines from a pine tree that have been
composted a little bit probably aged
about a year and then we're ground up to
a smaller size and this is the ideal
material for mixing into clay and we'll
mix this 50% with the clay that we pull
out of the soil and we'll mix it 50%
with the with the pine bark we may
actually add some compost to that just
to show you I might do a third third
third for the plant that I'm going to
put into the ground in the clay soils so
all that's left to decide at that point
you know the tools you're going to use
and you know the amendments you're going
to use to plant them now you need to
know what kind of mulch you're going to
use after you plant your plant you need
to cover the ground with something
around your plant prevent weeds from
coming up and competing with your shrubs
or your trees and also it regulates the
water
the soil moisture the two main things we
may use for mulch are going to be pine
straw if baled pine straw is available
in your area this makes a fantastic
mulch it breathes really well it blocks
weeds from coming up fantastic typically
doesn't choke your plants out it won't
drown your plants as readily so I like
it I like to use it it has been banned
in some areas because it could be a fire
hazard
you know if you're concerned about that
if you live in an area that gets you
know it's prone to a lot of fall and
winter fires you know might not be the
best idea the other thing that people
are going to use is a hardwood mulch of
some kind this is a bag of brown dyed
hardwood mulch you see more and more of
this either black or brown or red dyed
hardwood mulch you know the diet to keep
the color longer it's supposed to be
some sort of organic dye I hope it's not
damaging to the environment have no idea
typically I would just use regular
triple shred or double shred hardwood
mulch and buy it in bulk and just make
sure you're using a thin enough layer
that we're not drowning our plants
another option people use is gravels or
rocks you'll typically see used as mulch
you'll see it more in drier climates
typically in areas in the east where it
rains more it looks great when you first
put it down but as leaves blow into it
and we'd start to come up in it it's
very difficult to clean it seems very
permanent at first and then in the long
run it ends up being a lot of
maintenance so I prefer just to use
hardwood mulch or pine straw as my mulch
one other thing you may see when you're
shopping for soil amendments is that a
lot of them now have fertilizer in them
and that makes sense for a potting soil
where you might be planting a house
plant or planting your flowers annuals
vegetables those that kind of thing
those things you would definitely want
to fertilize at the time you were
planting them doesn't make a lot of
sense to have a planting soil for shrubs
or trees have fertilizer in it because I
might be planting my azalea in the fall
but it has fertilizer in the bag that I
wouldn't want to put on until March so
when we're shopping for amendments for
trees and shrubs and fruit plants and
berry plants and any kind of woody
plants even perennials
I would buy the really simple planting
components that I showed you and then
buy your fertilizer separately if it's
the appropriate time so I'm going to be
planting this pink snow camellia in this
area right here and I know all the way
around the foundation of this house is
very heavy clay so I've got my soil
amendments here I have the appropriate
tools and I have my plant the first
thing I want to do is clear this pine
straw there's some leaves that have
fallen on it it's in the fall and I have
a layer of pine straw under here we're
going to want to clear it out
with the garden rake a big area you can
see how easy this rake makes clearing a
soil and I'm gonna push back there right
there
so now I'm down to just the soil all the
way around in a circle there okay
alright this is our trenching shovel
here I'm going to see I'll show you how
hard this actually yes I've got a tree
here to my right and another tree over
here so I'm expecting to run into some
roots I can actually see surface root
right there this is the spot I'm going
to be digging in as you can see you know
I can force this trenching shovel down
in the ground a little bit at the time
like that and pull back on it I can make
progress if I was trying to use a
regular you know 10 or 12 inch Spade
there's no way I could push it down into
this this is very heavy red clay under
this uh a little bit of black soil on
the top where my mulch is broken down
over the years but you can see right
here that's that heavy thick red clay
it's actually great soil for growing
shrubs especially shrubs in my area that
are acid-loving shrubs but it doesn't
drain very well and when we dig that
hole we're actually digging a space
where all the water is going to easily
collect now and that's the purpose for
using chunky material is to drain that
water to the bottom of that hole
okay rather than use that shovel I'm
going to show you here's the pic end of
the pickaxe here I'm basically just
going to raise this thing and pretty
much let it drop in on its own and when
it goes down in I'm just going to pull
back on it like that and I'll go in a
circle maybe twice the width of that pot
and just let it fall down and pull back
on it there's not a lot of effort on my
part I'm not driving it down I'm
basically just using the weight of the
tool and then pulling back there are
some roots in this hold we'll eventually
have to be cut so I'm just going to go
ahead and take the axe into this and
just kind of go around the edge of this
hole that I'm digging knowing that I'm
eventually gonna have to cut all these
swamp roots okay alright so once we've
gotten that much done I'll come back to
my trenching shovel and just clean out
the hole we'll set it on the side I've
cleared out a big enough space that I
can make maybe two piles of soil these
larger pieces that are coming out I'm
going to go ahead and cut those up a
little bit it'll make it easier later
got some trash here if you're digging
around the foundation you're almost
always going to find this sort of
construction trash where things just
dropped and they stayed where they
stayed when the guys were building the
house any of these roots that I chopped
up we don't want those to end up back in
the hole so we'll dispose of those
don't think I'm going to have to use the
pic again once I got through those roots
it's not too bad there's maybe a four
inch layer of red clay and then right
under that was a slightly different
soiled it seems a little easier to break
through I almost got it
not much more okay I'm going to kind of
test fit this can container while the
plants still in the container see if
I've gone deep enough we'll just use it
just leave it in the container and set
it there and we're probably still an
inch to go to get the top of that root
ball level with the old soil line so it
shouldn't be too bad
okay
so much easier this trenching shovel is
there's no way I could pull this out
this easily now I'm down to it's another
layer a different clay this happens
around new construction where they move
soil back and forth and you end up with
weird layers but that's what soil
amendments are for okay we're doing
plenty deep enough now I'll bring the
camera over and show you the hole so
that's it right there
we're down deep enough that the top of
the root ball on the plant is even with
the old soil line and we're probably
about one and a half times the width of
the container that's totally adequate
we've got some roots and some other
debris around the edge of this hole I'm
going to just kind of throw those to the
side I'll throw them in my mulch he'll
break down pretty easily they're small
ones and then we'll move to the next
step okay so got our hole dug most of
the other organic material has been
removed the little roots and that kind
of thing what we're going to do now is I
have this ring of soil around the hole
here I'm going to use some of this pine
bark soil conditioner and just kind of
go around the edge with that
a little bit goes in the hole doesn't
matter it's gonna end up there anyway
okay so we've got that I basically put a
you know quarter inch or half inch layer
on there I am going to use some of this
compost right here this is a little more
messy it's a big heavy thick wet
material here it has a little bit of
chunky material in it should work great
to drain this help drain the soil I'm
just going to add some of that it will
also have a small amount of a fertilizer
component but not very much that really
should be adequate right there those two
things together and really they'll get
mixed in as we plant I'm not even going
to do much mixing it in it'll just
naturally happen as we start throwing
soil back into this hole so we knew the
depth of the hole was about even with
the top of our root ball I'm actually
going to put some soil back into this
hole just a little bit inch
inch-and-a-half
so that this ends up up a little bit
when we put it in the hole so I'm just
going to take a little bit of this soil
mix if there's any more roots or
anything you see they're going to fall
in a hole grab them but let me see maybe
a little more right there okay so now we
have a little bit of our soil mix
there's any chunky clay left just break
it up a little bit if you can okay
and then we're going to take our plant
and usually you know we can hit two or
three times on the side and that's
usually adequate to get these pots to
slide off one other thing this is a very
heavy woody stem that I'm grabbing this
by I'm comfortable doing that on this
plant but frequently you'll get
something that's a you know very very
thin at the base and I would not be
handling it this way at all I would have
probably you know laid it down maybe
turned it upside down and grabbed the
soil like this
and then taking my container off
overhead like that
and that way I would not have manhandled
the top of the plant like I'm doing with
this camellia but with this camellia
that's what we're going to do there's a
tag on it and it would be tempting to
leave this tag on because you want to
identify the plant but really your best
to take these off because over time that
stem is going to grow and that plastic
is going to end up buried in that stem
so get rid of any of those you see so
I'm going to slide this out of the
container normally on camellias they're
not very root bound but this one
actually has some matted roots along the
side so I'm going to lay it here and I'm
actually going to take my shovel and I'm
going to just cut into it about a half
an inch there I'm going to come to this
side do it there and maybe one more time
here just like that and that should get
these going outward in the future I'm
going to set this in the hole and see
I'd actually like this thing up just a
little bit more I think it was a little
low in that container so I'm going to
set it to the side some plants you won't
be able to do that with this one's held
together pretty well but some of you
might have to put back in the container
temporarily to make an adjustment okay
alright so here we go I I'm going to set
this into the hole and now it is in fact
sitting up an inch inch and a half from
where we started I'm just going to start
taking the soil that I have around the
edge of it and just slowly knocking it
in that's why I don't put one if it's a
bed like this I like to put the soil all
the way around like I did because then I
can just walk a circle around it if I'd
piled it all on one side the tendency
would be to kick it in on that one side
and then move it move it move it
heaviest be more work with this
technique I can just come around I can
walk a circle around this plant I'm
mixing the compost and pine bark at the
exact same time again there's any clumps
of clay I'm going to continue to break
those up
and any additional weeks to get those
out of there it's a big 40-foot
cryptomeria next to this thing it has a
very fibrous root system that probably
will compete with this camellia over
time camellias are very drought tolerant
but we're going to have to keep an eye
on this plant when it becomes dry
because this tree is gonna be pretty
good at this point I'm going to take my
foot here just keep rotating this around
in a circle
pulling out any more organic material I
see as I go and just keep walking like
this I don't want to bury the top of
this plant in any way now I'm going to
temp with my foot just around the
outside of that so I hope all just like
that okay now I'm going to come back and
clean off the top here so that nothing
that wasn't covered when I took it out
of the container it's covered it stays
uncovered the whole process a little
more soil on this side okay and that's
pretty much done with the planting part
of this well tamp it down one more time
just like that beautiful okay so our
next step would be mulching typically I
already had this pine straw in this
space which normally had pulled it back
planted plant pulled that existing pine
straw back maybe bought one extra bale
because you know guess it never goes
back exactly like it was but in this
case I'm going to show you if I was
going to use if it was a new space or I
was REME ulting at the same time I'm
going to show you on this hardwood mulch
this is a brown dyed hardwood mulch I
look for
I'll have this bag up right here and
show you with this hardwood mulch what
we don't want to do is that that little
piling it up on the stem like that and
that's we frequently see everyone doing
now I think people see it in commercial
settings though the landscapers are
wrong on this they're just flat-out
wrong
we want to come after we mulch we want
to come toward the middle of this plant
and just pull it away from the stem so
that I just put that back exactly like
the top of was in the container okay my
mulch is fading out I may have this much
mulch you know two feet away from it and
that'll be fine the plant will root out
into that mulch layer and won't have a
problem with it but it can't start with
three new inches of mulch sitting on top
of the roots or they will end up rotting
and that would pretty much be that
obviously I'd mulch the entire space
same thing with the pine straw if I was
opening that Bella pine straw exact same
thing I would have piled it all around
it and then I want to come back and slid
it back away from the base of the plant
and that's pretty much it I'm going to
take my rake and usually I can use the
back of the Stilton rake where it's just
that flat metal bar right there and
basically this was kind of just flipped
over like that and I can easily just
roll it back out for the most part and
get it pretty much like it was to start
with like that maybe the other side a
little bit just like that all the way
around just keep knocking on it just
like that and the exact same thing here
after I've done this I'm going to go
back I'm going to check and make sure
that I just didn't pile a bunch of stuff
up around the base of it boom beautiful
that's it we got this bad boy in the
ground okay so here's what I do
on watering usually I'd be planting more
than one plant probably and I when I
move to the next one I just drag the
water hose over to the base of the one I
just planted and I just let it run very
slowly for a long time I saturate the
entire space all the way around the
plant it's a good idea if the space is
sloped to put it up at the top of the
slope and that way it will cover most of
the area but this camellia will be
blooming for years and years to come in
this space it ends up about eight or
nine feet tall so there's plenty of
space here where I've planted it to
allow it to do that and it's in part
shade where it would like to be so
that's the very basics of planting
shrubs or trees or perennials in clay
based soils thank you for watching my
video and if it was helpful
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