newbie clay bed problem

[Elmo]

I have awful clay to I raised my beds dug out the worst of the really big lumps of clay and filled it with topsoil from the other half of the garden that had been worked grit works a treat.

For your parsnips, what I would do, is use a crowbar to dig a hole a couple of feet deep about parsnip size, fill it with compost and plant you seed in the top. A bit like growing them in a drain pipe but without the pipe. They should have no problem pushing through the compose and only get restricted by the walls of clay. I had grew carrots in drainpipes last year fo exactly the same reason.

[SuzieP]

Thanks folks for all your suggestions. Pippin I don't know if my local council sells the compost - they do a green collection but not sure if they then sell the compost that results - I'll give them a ring to find out. I'd have to buy bag loads rather than trailer loads tho' as there's no facility here for deliveries. Elmo I might give your parsnip tip a go for the carrots as well but dig out a trench rather than individual holes as I bought seed tape this year (before I realised how bad the soil was).

20 years!!! I'm too impatient to wait 20 minutes Obviously a virtue I'm going to have to cultivate along with the plants

[Snadger]

The only area you don't want to add compost to is where you intemd planting carrots and parsnips! In this area alone, make a long vee with your spade by easing it back and forth along the row. Add old potting compost or new potting compost to this area only and plant your seeds in this. You should be rewarded with excellent carrots and parsnips!

[yoanbob]

hi suzie p, i have the same problem as you with the clay, we are also putting in raised beds, ive decided to do a six year rotation with mine, so for this year im only doing roots in containers, by next year i will have finished the other beds and then ill put the roots in the ones i manured this year, dont know if this helps but seemed like the only thing i could do.

[SuzieP]

That makes sense Yoanbob. But I'm too impatient I'm going to give it a go as Elmo and Snadger suggested by digging out a trench where I want the carrots and parsnips to go and filling with the contents of a grow bag.

The raised beds are definitely the way to go on clay - it's been pouring here on and off for the past fortnight and the part of my plot that's waiting for raised beds to be built is absolutely sodden, huge great puddles just laying on the surface and not draining...I had to go over today and create drainage holes with the fork. I know you should keep off clay when the weather's bad but it was awful so I put down planks to spread the weight and pricked all over to the depth of the fork tines - it worked, the water drained quickly away. All I need now is some dry weather and I might actually be able to finish the other beds. The four beds that are already done had drained well.