what to grow in clay

[dinky_doo]

hello my plot has a lot of clay-ish solil that runs a third of its width so obviously i wanna improve the soil by putting in some manure and the like
but which type of veg grow best in this heavy-ish type of soil
as this will ultimatlly force me to go back to the drawing board (again)
with regards to planting any idedas
cheers jason

[Sue]

Hi Dinky Doo
Fellow clay sufferer here, am in my first year of trying to reclaim a very overgrown plot. All winter it was mud, mud, mud and in summer - concrete! Which seemed to leave around 2 weeks when the ground was ideal...
I found the only way to get to grips with it was to put in raised beds for veg(I'm using Linkabord) and pile in the compost, manure etc to mix in with the clay. This seems to be working well and the worms love it - as a result I can grow a good range of veg on the beds. I have fruit etc in the ground and I am trying to improve this with mulching, I seem to remember someone saying it takes around 5 years to make a real difference? But in my first year the heavy mulching did go a long way to protect the soil from the summer concrete, shall have to wait and see how it gets on in the winter.
best wishes
Sue

[Lesley Jay]

Dinky we are on clay soil that turns to mud in all the rain and then sets like concrete but I grow whatever I want. Don't worry. In fact it probably helps during the hot weather to hold on to the water. You get studying the seed catalogues and enjoy growing all that veg next year!

[dinky_doo]

will do lj just wondering whats what you know
gonna do the seeds tonight

[Nicos]

You will probably find that it takes a while to warm up in spring. (Our first lotties were clay), so covering the ground with plastic/ fleece or cloches may help to speed things up a bit. We could never compete in local shows as some years our plants were only just sprouting when other people were cropping!!
Also. suggest that if you are going to turn it over , you try to do it soon before it gets too waterlogged and heavy( hmmm - just looking out of the window!! )
The frost will break up the soil better then too.
It's tricky digging when the holes fill up with water, and frogs lay their spawn in it overnight in the spring.
Do check you don't have a 'pan' at about 12-18ins below the soil level- will need breaking up if you do. Most plants have more shallow roots than that, but asparagus, fruit trees and I'm sure other plants too have much deeper roots.

[dinky_doo]

my plots L60ftxw40ft down the width around the 30ft mark it gos to light clay a spade depth down its like a sandy type of stuff on this bit its half spade blade deep in top soil then the heavy stuff it was dead heavy to dig on monday but in the dry its not to ad to work in so im gonna manure it hopefully next week and will stick some spuds on that bit

[Skipper]

Hi dinky doo.
We have clay soil here as well, so, like "sue", I have raised beds. I scrounged some scaffold boards to make mine and as well as digging in the usual manure etc I also put in some sharp sand and soot as this also helped to condition the soil. Last autumn I covered the beds in lime to make it less acid and all in all the crops this year have been far better and the soil is in better heart, hopefully over the next year or so it will be just right.The sharp sand has done well to break the clay up which improved the drainage no end.Hope all this can be of help: