Clay Soil Issues

[Lunatique]

Hello and good afternoon!

My boyfriend and I recently bought a new build just north of Sacramento, CA. We live on a corner lot and the builder basically plunked in trees and shrubs into small holes in the horrible clay ground and threw some rough bark mulch on top. I plan to rake away the mulch and lay down landscaping fabric, but am worried about how will the plants will do because the only good soil is that which was in the pots prior to shoving the poor things into the ground. I was thinking of throwing down a bunch of peat moss on top of the soil, sprinkle in some earthworms and cover with landscaping fabric and then putting the bark mulch back down on top of that.

Will that work to slowly amend the clay soil or do I need to actually work the peat moss in by hand? All info greatly appreciated and thank you for your time. Hope you all have a great evening. -Luna

 

[Chuck]

Hello and good afternoon!

My boyfriend and I recently bought a new build just north of Sacramento, CA. We live on a corner lot and the builder basically plunked in trees and shrubs into small holes in the horrible clay ground and threw some rough bark mulch on top. I plan to rake away the mulch and lay down landscaping fabric, but am worried about how will the plants will do because the only good soil is that which was in the pots prior to shoving the poor things into the ground. I was thinking of throwing down a bunch of peat moss on top of the soil, sprinkle in some earthworms and cover with landscaping fabric and then putting the bark mulch back down on top of that.

Will that work to slowly amend the clay soil or do I need to actually work the peat moss in by hand? All info greatly appreciated and thank you for your time. Hope you all have a great evening. -Luna

Do you know the Ph of your clay soil? Peat is acidic which is not a bad thing if your soil is alkaline. However, peat has zero nutritional value and is anti-microbial. You want nutrition for your plants and soil microbes help break down organic matter into nutritional forms your plants can uptake. You would be MUCH better off by applying 2 or 3 inches of good compost on the soil than you would peat. You will still have to fertilize your plants no matter what. As for landscape fabric, I would NOT use it. You will still get weeds even if you do put it down. Seeds will blow in or be washed in by rain. What I would do is fertilize out to the dripline of the installed plants. Then put down the compost and then put the mulch you removed back on top of it all.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Also peat bogs are a special and finite resource, please try and avoid using the peat in your garden, it is better where it is, and like Chuck says good, peat free compost will do a better job. I have heavy clay, every time I fire up my incinerator I chuck in some lumps of clay which sinter making a sort of rough terracotta. It is a long term solution, but they are great for drainage and soil structure.

 

[Susan BBPM]

Hello and good afternoon!

My boyfriend and I recently bought a new build just north of Sacramento, CA. We live on a corner lot and the builder basically plunked in trees and shrubs into small holes in the horrible clay ground and threw some rough bark mulch on top. I plan to rake away the mulch and lay down landscaping fabric, but am worried about how will the plants will do because the only good soil is that which was in the pots prior to shoving the poor things into the ground. I was thinking of throwing down a bunch of peat moss on top of the soil, sprinkle in some earthworms and cover with landscaping fabric and then putting the bark mulch back down on top of that.

Will that work to slowly amend the clay soil or do I need to actually work the peat moss in by hand? All info greatly appreciated and thank you for your time. Hope you all have a great evening. -Luna

We have clay soil (in Scotland, UK). Our back garden has been rough, weedy lawn for at least 20 years and prior to that was rough old fields.

When we planted our fruit trees, raspberries, blackberries, shrubs and roses we ignored the planting advice and instead 'slit planted' them direct into the sticky clay. So essentially, we stuck a big shovel in the ground to make a slit and shoved the bare root trees/roses into the slit (obviously this is done in winter when they're dormant). The stickly clay naturally 'sealed' the opening leaving our plants perfectly planted. They've all thrived.

Perhaps not all clay soil is equal, but it's supposedly nutrient rich and slightly acidic (which most plants like).

Our reasoning for this approach is that we'd observed that when you dig a hole in clay soil to dig in lots of compost etc you're essentially creating a basin that will hold water. Things planted that way tended to die of waterlogging. So we tried this direct planting of bare root shrubs, trees etc into the clay and have had 100% success rate.

For annuals and smaller shrubs we use raised beds - a raised bed essentially being a 6 inch layer of compost on top of the clay/lawn etc. Place a layer of cardboard down before the compost and you'll get the double whammy of eliminating most weeds. Do whatever you fancy with the borders - wood edging, bricks or just leave it natural.

Brilliant results, almost zero effort.

But the direct answer to your question - yes, worms etc will take nutrients down into the clay over time. Another thing you could try is in situ composting.

 

[Lunatique]

Wow! Thank you everyone for the replies. So much good information and stuff I had NO idea about. My gardening knowledge can be summed up as knowing just enough to be dangerous.

I will let you know what I end up doing but just want to say again - thank you to everyone for taking the time to reply.

 

[powermjp]

We have clay soil (in Scotland, UK). Our back garden has been rough, weedy lawn for at least 20 years and prior to that was rough old fields.

When we planted our fruit trees, raspberries, blackberries, shrubs and roses we ignored the planting advice and instead 'slit planted' them direct into the sticky clay. So essentially, we stuck a big shovel in the ground to make a slit and shoved the bare root trees/roses into the slit (obviously this is done in winter when they're dormant). The stickly clay naturally 'sealed' the opening leaving our plants perfectly planted. They've all thrived.

Perhaps not all clay soil is equal, but it's supposedly nutrient rich and slightly acidic (which most plants like).

Our reasoning for this approach is that we'd observed that when you dig a hole in clay soil to dig in lots of compost etc you're essentially creating a basin that will hold water. Things planted that way tended to die of waterlogging. So we tried this direct planting of bare root shrubs, trees etc into the clay and have had 100% success rate.

For annuals and smaller shrubs we use raised beds - a raised bed essentially being a 6 inch layer of compost on top of the clay/lawn etc. Place a layer of cardboard down before the compost and you'll get the double whammy of eliminating most weeds. Do whatever you fancy with the borders - wood edging, bricks or just leave it natural.

Brilliant results, almost zero effort.

But the direct answer to your question - yes, worms etc will take nutrients down into the clay over time. Another thing you could try is in situ composting.

Yeah i agree, good post, sometimes it can take time to see a change though