Quick/easy way to break up top soil

moneyistooshorttomention

With the problems I've had with this garden - I started from scratch on some of it and ordered new topsoil.

Snag is that - over recent months - it's turned out to be topsoil from this area (ie clay) and not "normal" topsoil as I know it to be.

I'm about to start planting in it over next few days - and it's in lots of hard clay lumps.

What is a quick/easy way to turn it back into the way it was when it was delivered to me - ie it looked as if it was normal topsoil at that point - nice/fine/etc.?

It's feeling more than a little arduous to pick up those lumps and physically try and break them apart into usable soil.

suki1964

Chickens

Ebe_Scrooge

You could hire a rotavator ? Trouble is, if it's clay, it'll clump back together again after the next decent shower, I think you'd really want to be spreading some decent compost over it before you rotavate it so that it'll get worked in.

Ectophile

Bashing the lumps with a garden fork usually works if there's been a spell of dry weather. But as Ebe Scrooge says, it'll all turn into a solid lump again after a spell of rain.

You need to mix in lots of organic matter before that has a chance to happen.

Davesnave

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

You could hire a rotavator ? Trouble is, if it's clay, it'll clump back together again after the next decent shower, I think you'd really want to be spreading some decent compost over it before you rotavate it so that it'll get worked in.

A rotovator capable of breaking up clay soil will prove more arduous to operate than digging. It's fun to watch people using such machines, though!

Gardening is a physical activity and it also takes time. The best way to improve clay soil is to work plenty of organic matter into it annually, perhaps adding some coarse grit too. Each year it will improve, but it won't miraculously get better overnight. The organic matter will encourage worms, and they will shift the soil about while you sleep, but again, they are slow workers.

The alternative to the above is to build deep beds and fill them with decent soil, bought from a well-researched source. If that means transporting it a hundred miles, then so be it, but it isn't going environmentally friendly, or cheap. However, neither is buying top soil or improvers in bags from a garden centre/DIY shed.

As a general point, there seems to be no water tight definition of top soil, so all sorts of things are sold under that epithet. I used to buy mine from a place which bagged it for retail sale, so I could look at the piles and see exactly what I'd receive. It's a market not unlike tarmacking and caveat emptor applies.

DigForVictory

So long as you have fencing (& tolerant neighbours, for when the fence is not enough), pigs! Rotavators on legs, manure the soil as they turn it over & good company some of them.

If you really want to plant in a few days, then the heavy stuff with the fork & the sacks of compost & vermiculite or sand may be the path forward, but Davesnave has the right of it. Good soil takes time.

moneyistooshorttomention

Davesnave wrote: »

A rotovator capable of breaking up clay soil will prove more arduous to operate than digging. It's fun to watch people using such machines, though!

Gardening is a physical activity and it also takes time. The best way to improve clay soil is to work plenty of organic matter into it annually, perhaps adding some coarse grit too. Each year it will improve, but it won't miraculously get better overnight. The organic matter will encourage worms, and they will shift the soil about while you sleep, but again, they are slow workers.

The alternative to the above is to build deep beds and fill them with decent soil, bought from a well-researched source. If that means transporting it a hundred miles, then so be it, but it isn't going environmentally friendly, or cheap. However, neither is buying top soil or improvers in bags from a garden centre/DIY shed.

As a general point, there seems to be no water tight definition of top soil, so all sorts of things are sold under that epithet. I used to buy mine from a place which bagged it for retail sale, so I could look at the piles and see exactly what I'd receive. It's a market not unlike tarmacking and caveat emptor applies.

Don't think I'd want to use a rotavator anyway somehow Dave - as I've got visions of it scattering bits of the darn couch grass I'm rather plagued with here around the garden:eek:. Add that together with I've not got that much physical strength even by female standards - so that's a nope to that then....

I've now decided to "throw money at it" again at the garden - and planning on ordering some "Composted bark fines" online from a firm that states that its THE thing to use on clay soils to break them up.

When I bought this house I was struck by barely ever seeing a worm anywhere in the garden. So I "threw money at it" and there's now loads of worms in one section of the garden. I cant quite figure why they havent made it over to a nearby section that's one of the worst. I'm planning on throwing those "bark fines" onto that section.

Trouble is I feel like I don't have time to spare basically to "wait it out" for the earth to normalise. Being in my 60s already = it feels like everything needs to be done "Now - or even sooner" in order to make sure I get years worth of my "reward" for having done it iyswim. Add that not being in my home area also means I want it all "now" - ie to make the house feel like Home asap.

I can certainly see why there are all these "concrete gardens" round here - a term of yours I have thoroughly adopted to describe many of them. Clay soil and gales and rain and couch grass and moss and the fear of Japanese Knotweed lurking in the area and I can understand why there are so many of these awful concrete slabs/concrete/tarmac gardens here (yuk! double yuk!) and then I start throwing even more money and thought into how to turn it into a "garden like I know gardens to be".:rotfl:

Dave - you are right about there is "top soil" and "top soil". I've already found that their definition of "top soil" round here is rather different to mine! I'm now buying what I require from national level. I've got a distinct suspicion I shouldnt have found a few "manmade" bits and bobs in that soil for instance (eg a few bits of black dustbin liner). My new motto is "Blow buying local - buy national" for pretty much everything except everyday shopping. Currently buying from a Scottish firm...

moneyistooshorttomention

DigForVictory wrote: »

If you really want to plant in a few days, then the heavy stuff with the fork & the sacks of compost & vermiculite or sand may be the path forward, but Davesnave has the right of it. Good soil takes time.

I have a nasty suspicion you're right.:(, I'm currently feeling shattered from just having done a small section of it by fork it up/break up clods with hands/run some water onto it to try and make the clods easier to break up. I'm trying not to think about the rest of it...

The house (therefore garden) is old enough that I'm surprised that "time" hasnt been taken already. But I guess with previous owners being "old ladies" that they basically seemed to do the "cover it up and forget it" school of thought - rather than dealing with it.

UnluckyT

Lime is good for helping clay soil.
Plus digging in lots of well rotted manure, perhaps some fine sand and compost. Hopefully it will improve the structure of the soil.

DaftyDuck

Nothing beats digging in organic matter for improving a clay soil longterm. At this fast-growing time of year a green manure crop such as a clover will grow fast, and allow the soil to improve both before and after digging. It needn't be strenuous, if done in small patches when the soil is slightly moist.. You can aid this by putting a bit of old carpet over the green manure crop for a couple of dewy nights.

Once you have organic matter in there, the worms will get to work, and do all the hard stuff for you. The first year is the only really strenuous one.

Mind you, you could hire a strapping young man to do the hard sweaty digging work for you. Darcy, anyone?

moneyistooshorttomention

Did someone say "strapping young man"? . Can't say they seem to be very "thick on the ground" hereabouts:(. I am wondering about a "wiry young woman" I come across that I know has gardening as a sideline and I'm hoping to bump into her again soon (having lost her contact details) and if it means throwing yet more money at it - then...grrrr...and what can ya do? <shrugs> She is a lot fitter than me by the look of it...

I have now got bark mulch en route (ie to lay on soil around fruit bushes to prevent yet more weeds coming up) and those composted bark fines have been ordered as well. You do not want to know JUST how much money I'm chucking at this garden.....ahem...

Another few hours of being positively shattered today - as I was busily cursing "old lady" previous owners that (for some strange reason) either put or left hefty great chunks of concrete blocks or bricks at various locations in the garden some distance down in the earth and I've been encountering more of them today. I've been finding them gradually as I wondered why my spade was hitting something solid. Cue for removing and chucking them ....and thinking "I dont think I'll need exercise classes at this rate"

I am wondering about green manure as well. I had a failure the first winter (where I threw around seeds for loads of green manure - think it was rye grass??) and that wasn't the worlds best idea. I am seriously contemplating having another go - but with clover this time (dual purpose = I seem to recall its edible). I havent got any old carpet left - I promptly threw out all the floor coverings in this house whilst I was busily gutting it and have a distinct suspicion they would have had loads of nasty chemicals used in the course of their manufacture anyway (as they werent THAT old....). Certainly there would have been a lot of the "third hand cigarette smoke" embedded in them - as the house reeked for months when I bought it...

EDIT; I've just googled organic manure from the firm I'm awaiting supplies from at the moment - and its 30 x 50 litres = about £400!!!! Time to chat up the farmers wives I've got onto friendly terms with and seeing if any of them are actually organic (I do know they have horses and/or cows) - have already established the main one isnt...but there are a couple more of them and maybe...just maybe...