Soil improvement help

Mrs_Domino

Ladies and Gents,

I have just spent the last 2 and a half hours backbreakingly digging the border round my front garden and I got to a grand total of 8 inches, yes 8 inches deep! :eek: A foot in a few places.

Its clayish soil and its incredibly packed with stones down there and some big bits of concrete. I have taken a hundred weight of stones out which has made a big difference and broken up all the big clumps of clay and it looks like lovely soil but whilst I was digging my 40 x 1ft border I came across a grand total of 2 worms. Thats bad isn't it?

I have shoved my begonias in anyway as I need the space in the back garden for my veg but is there anything I can do to improve the soil now or do i wait until winter and put manure on (is that what you do)?? Do I really want to do that in a front garden?

Its a rented house (longish term) so hopefully nothing expensive.

Thanks all in advance. As you can tell I am a complete beginner

justjohn

i alway use horse poop and loads of it lol

Mrs_Domino

justjohn wrote: »

i alway use horse poop and loads of it lol

In the front garden though? The border is right next to the path.

Also I can't do that until later in the year can I?

gardenroute

Any compost or manure is fine. The only problem with doing it now is that the mulch may dry into small, hard lumps which can be thrown around by birds making a mess.
Begonias won't like being buried in compost/mulch.

Lotus-eater

Yes you want to put manure on it whenever you can, then it can stay there over the winter. It doesn't matter how close it is to the path, as it hasn't just come out of the animals bottom, it's should have been sitting for a while and won't smell.
I wouldn't do it while you have anything growing there, but afterwards.

But you need to find out how cheap the manure will be, because you need alot, I wouldn't hesitate to cover the beds to a depth of 6 - 10 inches. And then decide if it's worth it for a rented house.

Mrs_Domino

Thanks all. There is a stables at the end of my roads which I have just found out my neighbour goes to for his allotment and its free :j

I will hold my horses, as it were, and wait till everything has died/died back then.

Hopefully the begonias will do okay in the meantime.

frog_bounce

Hello.

my back garden is just full of thick clay and in the summer it drys out and gets very very hard, also the grass doesnt grow too well in the clay.

Is there anything i can do to improve the quality of the clay soil in my back garden?

thanks

frog_bounce

whoops forgot to say, do worms help, if so whats the best way of encouraging them or best place to buy them?

A._Badger

You might have not have a disastrously low worm count. They could just be less visible in the top layer of soil if you've suffered the drought we've had in the South this year. Either way, you don't buy them - just add bulky organic matter and they will come. Home made compost is fine, as is well rotted manure. You will need to use a lot and over several years to get the maximum benefit.

If you have a really serious clay problem, you could also investigate one of the gypsum-based 'clay breaker' products. Opinions differ as to how well they work, but they do have their advocates and might be worth considering.

Yorkie1

frog_southampton wrote: »

Hello.

my back garden is just full of thick clay and in the summer it drys out and gets very very hard, also the grass doesnt grow too well in the clay.

Is there anything i can do to improve the quality of the clay soil in my back garden?

thanks

The only way to improve the soil structure is as previously posted on this thread - add lots of organic matter, and then add some more.

OM is manure, compost, leaf mulch etc.

holgate79

Can I recommend Acta bacta - a gypsum based soil improver (or similar) I have just applied this to my heavy clay soil and this has had a big impact - the soil is actually crumbly and black and easy to dig after just one application.

i read the mixed reviews of soil improvers on the internet - I was dubious but since I managed to source some cheap from ebay I thought i would give it a go - I'm glad I did - this has made a big difference to my soil - I must say that I think anyone who says they don't work must never have had any experience working with clay soils.

The product I bought was gypsum based, pH neutral and doesn't smell - it's not a feed I guess it works by altering the way the clay particles stick together / attarct.

It's great!