Clay Soil

[donnakebab]

My lottie is clay but quite patchy. I've been throwing organic matter at it for 2 years now and it's getting better as in easier to work. I use green manures too. At the very beginning I added some grit to improve drainage but won't need to do that again.

[Aberdeenplotter]

The trick with clay soil is to make sure it is dug, as roughly as you like, and then left over winter to allow the frost to break down any lumps/clods. In the spring time, it is then relatively easy to rake the soil out to a friable state for planting/sowing.

As the others have said, you are really lucky to have a clay soil and they have also given sound advice about adding organic material to improve the soil structure.

[di]

Where do you put the newspaper Di? I have an issue with couch grass in my carrot patch and trying to work out how to use a mulch to suppress the couch whilst also being able to plant root veg. Is the newspaper laid between carrot trenches?

I actually took pics today, so will try to get round to posting. In the meantime, I just lay them in a couple of lines leaving a little gap in between. I guess you could do the same with cardboard.

[di]

Although there's actually beans here, carrots I'd make the gap smaller, shows you what I might not have explained properly.