Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Apr 12, 2016 8:15 pm Hi, I am a new member and confess very much a novice gardener. Our Phillip Island garden is currently unplanted and is basically clay - though not far from the beach. With the help of a relative who is a landscape gardener/designer I plan to plant out natives come Spring. My question is how to best prepare the soil for that planting. I understand I should kill all weeds and also that gypsum is great to break down the clay in the soil. But I am unsure regarding which I should do first - or if that matters - and whether there are any other secrets to breaking down the clay. Thank you in anticipation! Tim Re: PLANTING IN CLAY SOIL 2Apr 13, 2016 1:14 pm We had really heavy clay in our place at the start of the journey. It was so hard, we needed a jackhammer. I think I asked a similar question in this forum a few years back. Here's some of the advice we got. Gypsum, dolomite lime helps, but you need lots of quantity and a long time before it does anything. Organic matter (compost), tilled down to 300mm is the fastest route to improve the structure. But it's still takes time. Green manure crop and mulch is great to reduce weed and help the process along whilst you're preparing soil for planting. For us, it took 18-24 months to see a real difference. Proper organic compost yield better result than generic ones. Re: PLANTING IN CLAY SOIL 3Apr 13, 2016 10:27 pm I turned the soil (or should that be clay!?) in the garden bed areas and mixed through some compost. I'm impatient so planted straight away. Watered with Seasol almost every week for quite a few weeks. After that I have used Seasol PowerFeed fertilizer every two or four weeks or so through spring/summer. Plants have been in for over 12mths and no issues yet. Plants seem to be growing well. Having said that I did choose pretty hardy plants too. I also covered garden beds with thick mulch layer. Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: PLANTING IN CLAY SOIL 4Apr 14, 2016 8:39 pm Most plants generally do well in clay soils providing its not full solid red/brown clay that restricts root development or causes drainage issues which then causes root rot due to roots always being wet as the clay wont drain the water. Clay soils are full of nutrients. I have had a bit of experience with clay soils as both of my houses have had dreadful clay soils. Over time you can improve the soil it takes time and patience though there is no quick fix here just hard work. I have found the best way to improve is the below 1. Till clay soil to at least 300mm deep roughly smooth over 2. Add a heap of mushroom compost bought at masters for $4 per 20litre bag cover soil about 40mm thick in mushroom compost. 3. Add gypsum and clay breaker ( I just did this just because I don't really think gypsum does a whole lot others will argue with me but I tried it at my first house and the results speak for themself. 4. Add any organic compost on top of this 5. Add a weed mat on top of all this and add chip bark mulch on top. This will keep the soil below very heated and the organic compost will continue to rot. Over time the soil underneath will slowly improve, plant your plants after you have done all this and they will thrive by the time the roots venture down deep enough to the clayier soil they will be stronger and will have a better chance of breaking through the clay and sucking up all the nutrients. I have recently done the above and planted muraya hedges and other plants and they are going crazy I never expected them to go as well as they have. They have tripled in size in 3months time im hoping that soon they actually slow down as I don't want them to be too mature so quickly. Hope this helps. Re: PLANTING IN CLAY SOIL 5Apr 29, 2016 11:17 am I am in the same boat after moving into a newly built home. I am wondering when can i start planting or what I can do to fast track if this should even be an option? I have turned in organic compost and gypsum and now there is no real drainage issue as previously I would see pools of water for at least 2 days of heavy rain. I had done a soil test and that came back with a soil ph level of 8- 9 in most areas. So my question is what can I do now to the soil to further improve it? Add more organic compost? Is there any different between organic compost and mushroom compost? Seeing that we are almost at winter with more rain, should i wait until next spring or is it okay to continue adding compost in now? OR can I start planting? Apologies if i have hijacked the thread. Re: PLANTING IN CLAY SOIL 7May 01, 2016 8:18 pm If your ph level is up that high you need to bring it back down a bit to neutral. I remember reading somewhere that the ideal range for soil and good plant growth is around 6.0 - 6.5. Adding compost and nitrates will do that. Hiring a rotary hoe and getting down as deep as possible ( 300mm min is what I've been told is a good depth ) will do wonders to mix the clay with any of the additives and speed the process up. Stewie Re: PLANTING IN CLAY SOIL 8May 02, 2016 2:34 pm Thanks Stewie D. The soil is soft enough the i can use a garden fork to further turn in compost. Looks like ill be doing that next weekend if the weather holds. As for the rotary hoe, the garden bed is only 600mm wide running along the fence boundary so that's a no go for me. Is it true that you shouldn't work the soil whilst it is wet? had a downpour Saturday night and i have a pool of water in one area which i have not worked before. Cheers! Re: PLANTING IN CLAY SOIL 9May 03, 2016 8:11 am I prefer to do any digging and turning of soil while it is moist - too dry and it is harder to break up, too wet and it tends to clump together more. I guess it depends more on your type of soil as well. We have a sandy loam here with sandy/clay sub-soil further down. Stewie Re: PLANTING IN CLAY SOIL 10May 23, 2016 3:28 pm So I started digging up another garden bed over the weekend only to find a lot of clay. Already going 600mm deep and seeing thick clay. what are your thoughts to improve this? Im thinking of digging it all out but this would turn to a nice pool if i dig it all out? 600mmx19m long =/ https://www.dropbox.com/s/zb2ym5kat06r9sw/Clay%20soil.JPG?dl=0 Re: PLANTING IN CLAY SOIL 11May 23, 2016 5:06 pm Personally I wouldn't worry too much about clay if it's 600mm down. Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: PLANTING IN CLAY SOIL 12May 23, 2016 7:00 pm Hi HomeAngels, Been reading your thread; its looking great. So with the rain last night, that hole is now a pool and has not drained at all. Clay starts after the 200mm and continues from there. Was thinking of planting magnolias down there but if it rains it would suffer from wet feet. Now reading today was thinking to run an agi pipe to drain it off. Thoughts? Re: PLANTING IN CLAY SOIL 13May 23, 2016 8:42 pm You could try to run agi. I planted a magnolia little gem around 18mths ago and it's doing fine. We have heavy clay soil too. It's a pain! You could try mixing some compost through. Plus if you use young enough plants you'll find that by the time the roots reach the clay the plant will be well established and more hardy. We had terrible clay soil at our last place too and I would simply dig a hole twice the size of the plant, mix through some compost and top soil and plant into that. I never had any issues doing that. Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: PLANTING IN CLAY SOIL 14Jun 22, 2016 12:12 pm This is all very interesting to me, thanks HA and 6banga - I have incorporated your advice into my mega gardening spreadsheet! Not planning on planting for awhile yet but like being organised! My Hamptons build (completed): viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63370 Moved in Wednesday 11th Dec 2013 Front landscaping completed June 2016 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 3313 I am not sure whether Perth has its own way of doing things in regards to this. Most of Perth has class A (sandy soil), except for some areas near rivers or hills. 2 13091 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 37140 |