clay soil - help!!!

[madhatterlizzy]

help needed for an absolute beginner in gardening - my partner has very large vegetable plot ( well it will be when he's got started) - problem is the soil if mainly clay and completely overrun with nettles - can anyone give us some advice on how to deal with these problems and what we can then grow - the plot gets the afternoon sun if this helps
:cool Lizzy

[northepaul]

I also have clay soil, Madhatter, and really it requires a mixture of patience and either grit or sand.
Patience because it wont be sorted immediately (unless you use raised beds and add your additional soil or compost to those) and will require sand or grit, dug in to give some drainage, adding compost as often as possible also helps (ie if you have some spent ones from pots etc, chuck it on).

Nettles - well they can be very useful as a fertiliser tea, or in nettle soup and as a bee attractant, but not all over the plot. I would think it simply a case of digging the roots out and pulling up as soon as you see any new growth.
ope that helps

[Hans Mum]

nettles are not the worse thing you could be tackling on my clay soil ive dug in loads of chippings which have broken it down considerably and put on several tonnes of well rotted manure, this has been over quite a few years and my soil is much better now. I grow most things without any problems

[taff]

use the nettles on yuor compost heap, but either drown or dry the roots. If you don't dig the roots out, they will re-sprout. Cutting them back constantly will eventually kill them, but it might be worth keeping a patch of them going. Their roots are similar to mint, in that they will travel a bit, so if you do want to keep a patch [not as mad as it sounds] for making nettle tea, or putting on the heap to speed composting along, then try and contain the roots if you can, with some bits of slate or something.
^ same advice, throw as much compost as you can at it, it's great for growing in, but it wil crack in dry weather.
yuo can grow anything you like in it, as long as whatever you choose is suitable for the climate and.....does it only get afternoon sun in the summer too? or just in the winter?

[alex-adam]

Nettles are usually the sign of good fertile soil. Use the nettles as advised by other contributors above. You will need to dig in plenty of compost or FYM to open the structure of the clay soil and you will be able to grow most vegetables.

a-a

[zazen999]

You lucky thing. Clay is a great soil to start with - it holds water and nutrients and just needs a little management rather than tonnes of manure like some soils.

Dig out the nettles, mulch with cardboard or grass clippings. Grow things [except parsnips and carrots] in modules, and use a bulb planter to plant them, through the mulch if you can, then mulch again with sawdust if you can find any. Where you are to sow carrots and parsnips, dig in a little sand, sow and mulch with sawdust.

What you are trying to do is to stop the surface cracking in dry weather, so mulching has a huge effect on clay. And grow in beds and never stand on the soil, but make paths that you always walk on, then you don't have to spend days each year digging.

It's excellent for garlic and overwintering onions, so prep a patch, get those in soon and mulch mulch mulch.

[Two_Sheds]

it might be worth keeping a patch of them going.

... in the sun, for growing Red Admiral butterflies I don't let the nettles flower though

[madhatterlizzy]

thank you everyone for your suggestions, we hope to start next week to sort out the patch, and get some winter veg started. happy gardening to you all - Lizzy

[Two_Sheds]

I also have clay soil,... it requires ...grit or sand.

Or leafmould.

I've spent this morning having a tidy in the front garden(which is sticky brown compacted clay) & planting more tulips. I hadn't noticed how difficult the soil was until I got to the bits that were underneath the old choisya. The soil here had an inch of lovely black crumbly loam (years of choisya leafmould) and was very much easier to get the trowel into.