New Gardener needs help PLEASE

[pinkdebs]

I'm a new gardener and have been trying to grow veg this year with not a lot of success, my biggest problem is that my garden is heavy clay soil. I don't want to use containers as my garden is almost as large as most allotments so it would be a shame to waste the extra space. Can anyone give me any tips on breaking up the soil (quite cheaply), or just growing tips in general? Thanks for ur help

[ginger ninger]

Hi pinkdebs and welcome to the vine,
It would be very helpful if you could pop your location on, so people in your area could help you better ie growing conditions, when best to plant your veg & how etc.
Have you got any people with horses near you because I'm no expert about clay soil, but I would think lots of poo wouldn't hurt, and most horse owners would be glad to let you have some for free just to get it out of the way.

[zazen999]

Yes, I have heavy clay at the lottie.

Use a bulb planter and get some potatoes in next spring.

Take some of the clay off, put cardboard down, put the clay back on the top, and using the bulb planter, plant through the cardboard - anything apart from root veg, even though you might get away with doing onions like this.

Mulch, mulch and mulch again; compost everything that you can. For perennial weeds, throw them into a big container which holds water and let them rot down, then dig a hold once they are dead, and bury them - and plant straight over the top of them.

Add sand if you can get hold of it; it soon works its way in. I dig out an area each year for the carrots, sieve it and mix the sieved soil with sand and coffee grounds and sow the carrots directly into this. Do a small section each year and one year, you'll have done the whole lot.

[Gro-Bag]

Mine is heavy clay too - or was - but after three years of throwing everything organic into it - leaf mould, compost, manure, you name it - it isn't too bad now. I made it into raised beds and paths this year and I think that helps too, as it all drains much better and doesn't get compacted.

[BumbleB]

Hi and welcome to the vine. I do not have clay soil so cannot advise. You will get lots of help and advice here though, so keep posting.

[kentvegplot]

hi pinkdebs. I'm on heavy clay too, and the answer is 'organic matter'. At first you may need to buy it (I use bagged organic farmyard manure from the garden centre) but once you're making your own compost, you'll need to buy less or even none at all.

If you want to grow carrots, you'll need a finer soil structure, so maybe a small raised bed that you can fill with a mixture of (bought in) topsoil and compost.

As gro-bag said, clay soil can be improved over time, and it is the most fertile so good to have, even though you might not think so when it's hard as iron in our lovely hot summers(!)

[Two_Sheds]

very good advice above ^^^^
there's some further reading here: Improving Clay Soils from Allotment Vegetable Growing

I would say don't try and improve it all, all at once if it's a large space.

Start your veg off in modules or small pots, in multi-purpose compost. As you plant them out, you will be adding soil improver every time; over time your soil will get better.

[vicky]

Use this winter to get as much 'stuff' in it as possible...Sharp sand, grit and loads of organic matter eg manure.

Don't work the soil when it is too wet as you will compact it further.

There's also a product called 'clay breaker', I've never used it and don't know what it is but it might be worth investigating

Welcome to the vine!