improving soil drainage

[miggs]

Hi All

Where i live the soil is the dreaded clay am i best to buy say a sand shingle mix or just sand or just gravel

I have bought 2 ton of top soil so will mix it all together

Am i right lol.

[simon]

I would say a mix of different size aggregates would be best. Top soil is good as a direct replacement if you are planning to dig the clay out and dispose of it like Dave B has been doing but if you are mixing, you need to add plenty of organic matter. Adding grit to claggy soil does not improve the drainage, it just leaves you with gritty clag. Fibrous material like compost will break down the structure of the clay to leave a more open medium to which grit an be added to open it further.

[miggs]

I will be mixing it all as to get rid of the clay would be a total nightmare

I need to find someone local with well rotted manure as to buy all the compost would cost me a small fortune as the garden is 3/4 acre is there any other way ie cheaper lol.

[Brian]

Miggs is there any dairy farms near you my grandad used to buy about 4 ton a year from his local farm, most farms will happily delevier it to you for a small fee. I use horse poo 50p a bag you can find it all over Norfolk theres a farm near Hempnall that puts out about 20 bags every weekend

[miggs]

doesnt that manure on the side of the road have to rot down as i was under the impression it would do more harm than good

[Brian]

that is a good point yes it is fresh manure your best bet then is a dairy farm i would say. There is a dairy farm on the Hapton road just past the railway bridge as you would be coming from yours its called Vally farm it would be worth asking there if you havent got one closer

[Chalk Brow]

If adding sand it must be very coarse.

Very coarse grit, ash from a bonfire, soot, shoddy (a by product of the wool industry, but not idea where you get it!), broken brick and garden compost are all good for improving and breaking up a clay soil.

[simon]

You can bulk buy compost from various sources on the internet. Usually derived from green waste, it will cost about £40 per cubic m. or cheaper if you buy it loose. Much cheaper than buying bags from the garden centre. If you have 2 ton of top soil, I would say 2 cubic m of compost would do you, then you can add to it each year. I buy 2 cubic m each year as a mulch and let the worms get to work on it.

[Dave Brown]

I will be mixing it all as to get rid of the clay would be a total nightmare

I need to find someone local with well rotted manure as to buy all the compost would cost me a small fortune as the garden is 3/4 acre is there any other way ie cheaper lol.

Yes diging it out is a nightmare, but less so than the 25 year nightmare of trying, and mostly failing, to inmprove the soil sufficiently for the plants I wanted to grow.

Any organic material would disappear in about 2 years and I was left with the same plastercine I had to start with.

I now remove the top 3 inches of improved soil, and dig out around 12 inches of platercine below. The imporved soil is mixed with compost and sharp sand and put back to the same level. Basically adding improvers to the plastercine didn't work, you really need 75% plus new material or the drainage is hopeless in winter.

The plastercine is taken to to recycling centre 16 bags at a time, any more overloads the car I have done maybe 100 trips in the last year.

Oh and my plot is 1/7th acre, so you have approx 5 times the problem.

I added sand to the clay thinking it would improve drainage, but it actually made it worse as it all set like mortar and did not drain at all after. I ended up digging it out and dumping it, that was what started my "removing rather than improving" tactic

[miggs]

well i have bought a load of rotted manure today for nearly butter all

I have now made raised beds around the garden and started to dig out the clay and put that as a base layer in the raised beds

so we are looking good still got loads to do but im not going to give up im on a mission

cheers for all your replys

[metalhammer]

You can get 'claybreaker' products,Gypsum used to be the one to get,but I'm sure there is a newer product available,not having the misery of clay soil,I don't need these products.The generally accepted way of improving clay soil is to incorporate large quantities of organic matter + medium to large sized grit.

If drainage is really bad,then raised beds are your best option,but you will need very large quantities of soil to create anything like a decent bed.A cubic metre of topsoil will only create a 3 sq.metre bed if you make it about 1 foot deep.

edit,just Googled 'claybreaker products' & came up with Vitax Clay Breaker.Checkout the Vitax website,must have more info on it.


edit 2,Vitax website is www.vitax.co.uk




metalhammer.

[simon]

The clay breaker sounds really interesting. It would be great to hear from anyone who has used it before. If not perhaps Dave B can give it the ultimate performance test .

[metalhammer]

The thing is with clay soils,the minute particles don't get together in lumps like in ordinary soil,& as the particles are very fine,it becomes an impenetrable mass.The clay breaker encourages the particles to form clumps,that way the water can move through the soil.

Incoporation of organic matter,grit coarse sharp sand creates pathways for the water to move through.Mulching helps,it encourages worms into the soil.It's a combination of many things to improve the situation.

I have the opposite,a free draining valley bottom loam,can get very dry in weather like we are currently having,but once it does rain,even if it buckets down for a couple of days,I can be back on the soil within 3 to 4 days.





metalhammer.

[miggs]

cheers MH

I looked on the website and emailed them to find where i can buy it and hey presto garden center on my doorstep so will be getting some to try out

[Dave Brown]

Maybe I'll have to have a go with that as well. Dug out two bags to plant my Abutilon today. and made some models at tea break