What should I be doing about my soil now?

Tibbie's_mum

Decided to take the plunge and hand over my front garden to veg, too dangerous in the back garden, flying footballs and kiddiwinks. So what should I be doing now? I'm going to transplant some of the small shrubs that are in the current beds and if they survive all well and good. But what should I being doing then, I have lots of leaf mulch, but I don't think it's rotted down enough to dig it through the beds, what do people suggest for me to do to start preparing this soil? BTW the soil is heavy clay, I've just moved from a house where we were on almost sand, talk about one extreme to the other.

Thanks in advance.

Wookey

Dig the area over where you are for planting veg, turn the spade fulls out and break them up as best you can, add as much compost and rotted manure as you can and then fork it thru and into the soil. Repeat the forking in about a months time again breaking down any large lumps you turn up. Do not walk on the dug area and avoid it totally when its wet. Another option is to build raised beds on top of the clay and fill these with good quality top soil and compost, this is generally expensive unless you can source the stuff for free or cheap.

Dustykitten

I'd stay off the soil right now unless it has dried out - all of mine is far too wet to dig at all yet, it has a clay base. You will ruin any structure the soil has by walking on it or digging it much yet.

Money_maker

Clay is fertile but tricky. Best to add lots and lots of sharp sand (from builders merchant) and possibly a little pea shingle too. The sand will help to break it down a bit but you will need lots to dig in.

Tibbie's_mum

Thanks for your replies.

I managed to transplant a couple of Box hedge plants and a huge dome shaped shrub that I haven't a clue what it is. Anyway, should they survive, they look very nice in the border of my back garden. The soil in the front garden is nowhere near as waterlogged as I thought it would be and isn't too dificult to dig. I will continue to transplant stuff for the time being and will fork through some sand once I have a cleared area.

Once again, many thanks for your replies.

torbrex

I have a heavy clay soil here in Fife and always dig it over about middle of March and let a couple of frosts get at it before doing anything, then I add some sharp sand and bonemeal mix or the compost from last years planters and dig it over again mixing it well in before doing any planting.

I should add that I go round the garden about now picking any stones that have been washed to the surface by the winter weather.

Tibbie's_mum

I've just transplanted another two Box hedges from a bed that must have been made from soil that was bought on site 'cos it's lovely. This is a really sunny bed so I'm going to have my peas and beans running along this one along with 1 wigwam of sweet peas to look pretty and also hide the fact that I'm growing veg in the front garden, can't trust no one nowadays!