Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design Re: Please help a noob out with some Advice 21Apr 25, 2012 12:43 pm I went outside once. The graphics were alright, but the gameplay sucked! Settlement:22nd June Slab:27th August Frame:16th Sept Bricked:21st Oct Roof:24th Nov Linings HANDOVER23rd March! Re: Please help a noob out with some Advice 24Sep 27, 2012 4:04 pm Can you explain why you particularly recommend bentonite clay? It is a clay most suited to be used for dams and drilling mud. In a drying climate we need to be scientific and informed about our soil improvements, to save water and reduce leaching of nutrients. Claying works to improve soil in four ways, reducing the pore size of the soil, adding the ability to hold together sand and organic particles in a ped of soil, attracting water to its surfaces and curing run-off and water repellency. Kaolin clay and silt achieves a better result in all of these than bentonite does. I did a lot of reading over several months because I could not believe my own eyes with the results I got in my garden. Claying soil has been well researched by soil scientists around the world, and locally in our very sandy areas of South Australia and Western Australia, and the results are always the same. Kaolin clay is found to be more effective in ameliorating water repellency and much better at creating a stable soil. Bentonite is inclined to float out of the soil in wet conditions and go up to the surface where it creates a sticky water barrier, and cracking on the surface when it dries again. The bentonite clay particles swell and shrink. The improvement that small amounts of the high CEC of bentonite, zeolite or spongolite brings to soil is almost negligible. Zeolite has been shown in trials to be very reluctant to release water or nutrients, and does not increase plant available water in the soil. You will get better results in a garden by adding kaolin clay and building up the CEC naturally as increasing amounts of humus are held by the clays and silts and form peds of soil. Humus has a far higher CEC than any clay, and is the end result of compost after it has completely finished decomposing. Be careful not to add more than 1 to 3 litres of compost per sqm or you might cause water repellency of your clays! The only garden product that includes kaolin clay is Soil Solver. Regarding recommended quantities of clay. It is a myth that any clay is like a fairy dust and can be sprinkled on the surface and magically create soil out of sand. You would still be lacking the silts needed for a loam soil, and you need to change the pore size of the soil by at least 10% to make a significant difference to the movement of water. Field trials with clays go back decades, the department of Agriculture, CSIRO and UWA soil scientists recommend over 5% kaolin clay content, which is added PLUS silts to improve sandy areas on farms. Over this amount can result in a doubling of crops. Bentonite clay products are generally only 80% clay, so you would need 6 kilos per sqm to achieve this and as bentonite clays really wants to stick to itself, you would get a water barrier. This does not happen with the kaolin clays and silts in Soil Solver, you can add as much as you like to increase the nutrient and water holding capacity. It is friable and easy to work with. Soil solver cannot be replicated, it includes calcium enhanced kaolin clay, mineral rich silts, and extra rock dust minerals. It contains many times higher trace elements and minerals than the other claying agents. It is the most cost effective method of improving sand, because it is a permanent improvement. You could buy bentonite clay, rock minerals and calcium but you would have an inferior result and have spent more money! Results are important. In comparisons over the past two years in gardens using different claying products, Soil Solver had by far the best results. Lawns that have it incorporated underneath along with 5 litres per sqm of compost, are using less water, and need no fertilisers - even in their second year. They are the best lawns in their neighbourhood. Vegetables and fruit grown are many times larger and a better colour because Soil Solver not only adds clay, it balances the calcium and magnesium in the soil and provides all the trace elements that plants need. You only need to add small amounts of compost in the future. If you want to know more about clays and how they work to improve your soil - watch the video below. If you are sceptical, test and compare results for yourself. Read the independent scientific trial results. Got any pictures of your lawn Mark38? 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