Archived

[rapunzel]

Deleted old thread

[malumbu]

Dig in tonnes of sharp sand or just replace 1/2 metre with decent top soil. And you will need drainage put in. Massive job!

[rapunzel]

Archived

[IlonaM]

What we did was enrich the soil with compost and manure in the holes we were digging to plant in. It cuts time and effort. Also if you mulch with compost, leaf mould and manure on the top the worms will do the work for you and take the mulch etc down through into the clay. Slower but it has worked for us. We did try sharp sand initially, but it was (as malumbu says) a 'massive job' and we jumped at the garden centre advice.

[Calsug]

We put in raised beds with new compost to save digging the soil out - worked very well

[Sue]

I wouldn't dig anything in. You will just bring the clay to the surface, and in any case it's very hard work. Anyway in the Summer you won't be able to dig clay, unless it's a very wet season, it will be hard and cracked.

Whatever you use, just lay it on top. The worms will take it down anyway.

Sharp sand (only sharp sand, not builders sand) can improve the drainage, but I personally wouldn't use a lot of it.

You need organic matter. The riding stables on the South Circular (just past the old Harvester) have manure, however you will have to let this rot down before you plant in it, so you may not have the space to do that.

Often there are people on here giving away topsoil, however it varies very much in quality. You can buy it in bulk, but that's an expensive way to do it if you need a lot.

You can make your own compost (I think the council are selling dalek compost bins cheap at the moment) however this takes a long time and you might not want a dalek in your garden unless you can hide it somewhere.

Leaf mould is also a good soil conditioner, but that takes even longer to rot down.

I just googled and found this article, which looks useful:

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=620

Good luck! The only plus point about clay is that it's very fertile, but otherwise it's a real pain!

ETA: Sorry, I see much of what I've said has already been said, duh.

[civilservant]

i'd go with the advice from Sue and ilonaM - you're facing the same problem as 99% of ED gardens, including mine

i think that all of the advice about the need for double-digging etc has been pretty much debunked in favour of (as the ladies say) just letting the worms do it for you

[raasaygirl]

I got some Lakeland Gold bracken compost (from Alleyn Park Garden Centre) and its helped a lot, my garden is doing really well this year.