Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Nov 17, 2010 3:43 pm Some people don't have time to do the job right the first time, but seem to have plenty of time to fix their mistakes. Build Thread Re: Improving Clay Soil immediately after build 3Nov 17, 2010 5:19 pm 'A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.' Louis Pasteur Vegie garden: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27637&start=0 My Backyard Adventure Re: Improving Clay Soil immediately after build 6Nov 17, 2010 11:15 pm Check out my post with all my garden pics. I had rock clay all around my house. not a weed grew in it for 12 months. I managed to get lush green grass and lovley plants growing in it, in no time. Here is what I did. Hire a rotary hoe. A proper big one, not a small tiny one. Get a few bags of gypsum. A few bags of mushroom compost. A few bags of garden soil (with the red ticks) a few bags of compost, some blood and bone, a bag of lime and a bag of potash, some zeolite, and some seamungus pellets.... Step 1 is to run the rotary hoe over the clay till it turns into a sort of fine sand. Then spread the mushroom compost, soil, and compost all over the place. No need to rake it in, just dump it all over. Throw handfulls of blood and bone around, as well as lime and potash and zeolite. What you will have is a very uneven mixture and piles of stuff all around the place. now take ur rotary hoe and run over the stuff a few times back and forth etc etc. Get the rotary hoe in deep, really put some force onto it. Your yellowish clay will now look more blacker from the mushroom compost and what not. I used a heap of mushroom compost. Fu is a little against this as it contains chicken manure but my one didnt have much at all. It was organic mushroom compost. Anyway... Now what you need to do is throw heaps of grass seed down, rake it all nice and flat. Dont worry bout compressing it yet. Throw down a heap of seamungus pellets. And water the heck out of it. A nice deep watering. I had grass growing in 4 days and it is now very thick and lush. I have some small bald spots here and there but everytime I cut the grass, i throw some seeds down mixed with soil and top dress with some compost and its working well. The gypsum takes ages to work but becuase its sandlike, it breaks up the clay nicely, the mushrooms in the mushi compost provide good food and i regurly throw down more seamungus and a mollasses mix of water and some seasol when im giving the trees a good drenching. I didnt mulch over my seeds or anything. I just mulch all around my trees and they are doing great. Cheers. Re: Improving Clay Soil immediately after build 7Nov 18, 2010 11:57 am Thanks everyone, not looking to dig/hoe it at the moment, this will happen later down the track (6-12mths) when I have a budget to bring in some top soil. I guess the main aim is to keep the weeds down, keep the dust down, whilst hoping that whatever I use will be beneficial in the future. Some people don't have time to do the job right the first time, but seem to have plenty of time to fix their mistakes. Build Thread Re: Improving Clay Soil immediately after build - Fu??? 8Nov 18, 2010 12:28 pm Quote: Richo Thanks everyone, not looking to dig/hoe it at the moment, this will happen later down the track (6-12mths) when I have a budget to bring in some top soil. I guess the main aim is to keep the weeds down, keep the dust down, whilst hoping that whatever I use will be beneficial in the future.[/quote Mulch it all then and dig it through at a later date. Use a fat layer of tree loppers , "bush/leaf" mulch or straw. They break down quick and conditions the soil unlike pinebark and pebbles. No dust, minimal weeds and can walk on it through the soggy winter. Re: Improving Clay Soil immediately after build 9Nov 18, 2010 12:31 pm oohsam The gypsum takes ages to work but becuase its sandlike, it breaks up the clay nicely, the mushrooms in the mushi compost provide good food and i regurly throw down more seamungus and a mollasses mix of water and some seasol when im giving the trees a good drenching. I am watching this thread as well. I am dealing with clay and rock. You dig the rock away to find more rock. I have read a heap of threads here about this subject - but I have a query about Molasses.... wouldn't this attract ants?? Re: Improving Clay Soil immediately after build - Fu??? 10Nov 18, 2010 3:41 pm We're in the same situation as you Richo. We've just put some gypsum down the side of the house but that's it. No idea what else to do. What's the pea straw for? Should that go on top of the gypsum? Can anyone please point me to a link with what to do for preparing soil? Is there a suitable alternative to using Powerfeed? I'm not into using animal products. Life is; then you tell yourself a story. Re: Improving Clay Soil immediately after build 11Nov 18, 2010 4:06 pm oohsam Hire a rotary hoe. A proper big one, not a small tiny one. Get a few bags of gypsum. A few bags of mushroom compost. A few bags of garden soil (with the red ticks) a few bags of compost, some blood and bone, a bag of lime and a bag of potash, some zeolite, and some seamungus pellets.... I have read this a couple of times around the traps here. So, I went looking for zeolite, or a type of product that has zeolite in it and was advised at the "garden shop" that this won't help me with my rocky clay issthues!! Can I ask you if you could elaborate a little more for me on what this actually does?? And could/would I get away with not using it?? Thanks heaps... Re: Improving Clay Soil immediately after build - Fu??? 12Nov 18, 2010 4:48 pm oze We're in the same situation as you Richo. We've just put some gypsum down the side of the house but that's it. No idea what else to do. What's the pea straw for? Should that go on top of the gypsum? Can anyone please point me to a link with what to do for preparing soil? Is there a suitable alternative to using Powerfeed? I'm not into using animal products. 1. yes mulch on top of gypsum, gypsum must be mixed through the soil to do much. I have never bothered with it and just used composts/manures/mulch which work far quicker. 2. both myself and oosham posted how to prepare soil earlier in the thread which is the same info all through the forum. Mix, till, rip soil conditioners through the existing clay eg composts. Re: Improving Clay Soil immediately after build - Fu??? 13Nov 19, 2010 7:17 am I am a lazy / minimum effort gardener. Our house is/ was totally surrounded by clay fill. I plan where I want a garden bed and used bluestone to create it. I throw down a little gypsum and rake it into the surface. Then I fill the garden bed with compost, vegetable waste, horse poo, stable manure, hay/ lucerne hay and anything else suitable. I then leave it to all break down and settle for a few months (or until I get arond to planting). When I do plant I will mix some soil through and aged manure. Wherever I was going to plant citrus or natives needing free drainage, I would put a layer of sand / free draining material at the base of the bed. Not very technical bt it seems to be working Re: Improving Clay Soil immediately after build - Fu??? 14Nov 19, 2010 7:43 am Just a question in regards to the whole composting, mushroom compost, rotary hoeing etc etc etc. I have 2 small dogs and 2 cats, should I be keeping the animal off the area, I am guessing it would smell pretty good to the dogs and they will want to dig it up, but what I am more concerned about is any of the stuff listed bad for the animals? Current status: Busy making the house our home Built PD Francis 29 on our 576m2 block at Reflections in Tarneit Reflections Estate Thread Our Build Thread Re: Improving Clay Soil immediately after build - Fu??? 15Nov 19, 2010 8:30 am No, all that stuff mentioned is fine for animals however it is up to you if you want you dog to roll in blood and bone or wharever. I'd say..... not! Re: Improving Clay Soil immediately after build - Fu??? 16Nov 19, 2010 8:31 am Thanks moody, I would section it off anyway, but just wanted to make sure that if they were to eat it or something that it won't hurt them Current status: Busy making the house our home Built PD Francis 29 on our 576m2 block at Reflections in Tarneit Reflections Estate Thread Our Build Thread Re: Improving Clay Soil immediately after build - Fu??? 17Nov 19, 2010 8:35 am improve your soil with a green manure! http://www.greenharvest.com.au/seeds/green_manure.html After 4 years - we're in! Re: Improving Clay Soil immediately after build - Fu??? 18Nov 19, 2010 11:55 am Richo - you shouldn't have to bring in topsoil as you will be making very rich soil on site out of your clay. Search "clay' with author Fu and Redman in this forum. Checkout redman's post here viewtopic.php?f=19&t=36663&hilit=clay If you aren't ready to plant out yet then cover with tree lopper mulch but as your soil improves stuff wil start growing in it so regularly weed out seedlings or spray out with roundup. Make sure you get them before they seed. My understanding is that zeolite and spongolite and bentonite clay are something of great benefit to our WA sands which cannot hold onto moisture and nutrients at all, but probably unneccesary in clay soils, in fact may have no benefit at all. Would be good if someone can clarify if this is incorrect. cheers 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 3422 We were lucky in that our old house was so small (86 square metres) compared to the new house, they were able to take enough readings around the old backyard house before… 8 37735 DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair I'm in WA and our sandy soils make drainage a bit easier but this is what I'd be doing. Dig down to your footings and let the wall dry out. Clean it all well by brushing… 1 5275 |