Yorkshire Kris wrote:
Only 8 inches under your tall chammy?
No Kris, less than that as it was planted before I started to dig clay out
and even more my Washingtonia had a hole about a foot wide and deep dug out of modelling clay with gritty compost added to it. The original hole is not as wide as the base of the trunk now, so I know it's rooted into that horrid stuff but it doesn't seem to mind
Adam D wrote: I am in the wet clay loam area, but as my house was a new-build it is pretty rubbish in a lot of places.
The front garden is okay with 6 to 9 inches in places. However, the back garden only has about 9 inches of top soil around the edges and virtually none in the rest of it. After the topsoil you hit horrible compacted subsoil with builders' rubble in it.
The borders are starting to improve though as every time I plant something I dig out some of the muck and 10 years of dropping leaves and bamboo leaves is adding some much needed humus back into the soil
Pretty much the same though (apart from last summer) the soil is dry clay April-Sept. Until this year I could not use a spade as they broke and I have went through several forks improving the compaction. I have only tried marginal plants over the past 12 months as I have improved drainage and added humus. Have lived in the area since 2006 but this house since 2010.
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Garden August 2010. You can see how rocky and compacted it is. Quite fertile though and as on a direct south facing slope it drains well and is warmed by the sun.
Garden December 2010. First snow that I had seen for years and it fell thickly.
Garden August 2013. Getting there. Next year is when the hardy tropical fun starts. Most of my tropicals/Bamboos etc are in pots on the patio (not seen in pic)
2 to 3 feet. Then hit some cracking sandy sub layer, with flecks of coal and darker sand and bit deeper
I should really make an excavation hole out of sight and fill up barrows with the deeper content, and spread over the borders. The plants I've used it on the past for potting on thrive. Great natural drainage I'd say.
When I first moved in 16 years ago, it was 2-4 inches of weed infested, grey, crumbly soil over solid chalk. Now it's 12-18 inches of beautiful, friable loam....still weed infested and over solid chalk but you can't have everything
flounder wrote:When I first moved in 16 years ago, it was 2-4 inches of weed infested, grey, crumbly soil over solid chalk. Now it's 12-18 inches of beautiful, friable loam....still weed infested and over solid chalk but you can't have everything
Do you have to step up when you go out your back door now? How high can you legally raise your land?
Adam D wrote: I am in the wet clay loam area, but as my house was a new-build it is pretty rubbish in a lot of places.
The front garden is okay with 6 to 9 inches in places. However, the back garden only has about 9 inches of top soil around the edges and virtually none in the rest of it. After the topsoil you hit horrible compacted subsoil with builders' rubble in it.
The borders are starting to improve though as every time I plant something I dig out some of the muck and 10 years of dropping leaves and bamboo leaves is adding some much needed humus back into the soil
Pretty much the same though (apart from last summer) the soil is dry clay April-Sept. Until this year I could not use a spade as they broke and I have went through several forks improving the compaction. I have only tried marginal plants over the past 12 months as I have improved drainage and added humus. Have lived in the area since 2006 but this house since 2010.
Looks like youve got the "pick of the plot" vs the neighbours, it spans all their gardens
I'd say we have about 18" of soil above dense clay. I've been gradually making raised beds to increase soil depth, improving the soil at the same time.
The only trouble with raised beds is that they require a solid edge / wall to support them, which makes it difficult to alter the shape later on.
Mine is about a foot deep then it just becomes like a spade hitting a piece of rock, but once i have softened the soil its workable but it just takes time you need a good hard winter on your soil kris to help break up the clay particles. and loads and loads and loads of manure, compost, grit/gravel.
As little as four inches before yellow clay subsoil in one spot right by the lawn, but this is a sloping bed that falls away from the house and by the time you get back to the building the topsoil is two feet deep.
Much of the sloping garden has raised beds. One bed that grew roses and vegetables till I moved in twenty-eight years ago had regularly been manured had more than two feet of good soil before the clay. I emptied a six cubic metre skipload of acid topsoil on top of it to build a large rockery and up to another two and a half feet of depth was added. No wonder the palm like Chamaerops and Jubaea have done so well.
