Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 May 10, 2010 9:35 am My yard is mostly (very heavy) clay soil so I can forget about most plants that can be found at nursery. I am not keen on scraping off the top and replace with fertile top soil / compost mix.. Co$t being the main reason. Can someone recommend what plants that thrive in heavy clay soil? I am thinking my only options are native plants and I am not very familiar with them.. Please recommend some shrubs for edging and small trees. Thanks. Re: Shrubs & small trees that grow well in clay soil 2May 10, 2010 11:37 am Gday Boleh. I have heavy clay soil too and wanted to do some edging around my fence line. In fact, I have clay soil all over my property and have recently undergone a massive garden makeover. I've red endless books about improving clay soil and there are many methods that are not viable (like planting spuds!) and some that are but will take time. There are a few things you will need to understand about clay. Firstly clay is full of nutrients, however as it is very dense, it holds water and doesn't drain well, so alot of plants will get root rot. Secondly, the key to having to clay is to improve drainage. This can be done many ways. Gypsum is a great method to improving draining in clay but it does take some time. Orange Jessamine does very well in clay and grows failry quick. its a beautiful shrub, it is classed as a weed in some states as it spreads and grows rapidly, but you can keep it under control with propper pruning. It is evergreen and produces white lovely scented flowers in spring time. I planted these bout 1meter apart. They are doing ok. I dug hole in the clay about twice the size of the pot and 1/2 as deep. I filled the bottom and sides with gypsum which looks liek sand, and filled the hole with good quality soil. Bunnings sell 30 litres of soil which is premixed with gypsum already which is great. I used this to back fill for the plant. Do not use the clay to back fill. Make sure you score the edges of the hole you dug before filling to allow the roots to branch out through the clay as they get stronger, or the clay will act like a pot and the roots will just go round and round and stunt growth. Finally throw plenty of gypsum between the plants on the clay you didn't dig up, to allow drainage. Fu manchu also advised that molasses helps to break up clay so give that a go too. He has a post on how to use molasses. Finally make sure you mulch. Use a green mulch, I use sugarcane mulch as it is cheap and easy to get and looks great. It will turn your clay soil into nice well drained soil over the years if you keep it topped up. it will also encourage worms which will do alot of the work for you. Never cover the root ball of the plant with Mulch as it needs to get oxygen to breath, you will suffocate it and that promotes root rot. Everything comes down to soil preparation. Do the right soil prep and ur plants will thank you for it. I have successfully planted many fruit trees in my clay soil and at first they struggle a little but they come back fighting strong. Cheers. Re: Shrubs & small trees that grow well in clay soil 3May 10, 2010 3:23 pm Thanks oohsam! What do you think of "round leaf mint bush" http://asgap.org.au/p-rotun1.html, any experience with these? Re: Shrubs & small trees that grow well in clay soil 4May 10, 2010 5:47 pm Where are you located, boleh? What thrives in one area may not do well in a different climate. Re: Shrubs & small trees that grow well in clay soil 5Jun 17, 2010 12:25 am I've dug some footings to embed a post anchor into. My holes are around 450mm deep which I'll put a 200mm stirrup into. The bottom of these holes seem firm enough. … 0 3315 It's possible but a soak well is usually much larger. Your 'soak well' only holds 424 litres when full. What is your soil type? Soak wells need sandy soils. 10 9008 Finally got the Soakwell at my house sucked out. Now I’m looking for ideas on how to hide it as it’s a bit of an eye sore. I’m thinking I’d like to turf over the… 0 3272 |