Ecnerwal wrote:
....
Apart from being miserable, clay does hold water, so that probably
helps. Where it rains more, good drainage helps - where it rains less,
clay can be a good thing (not being from where it rains less, most of
the time, and being abundantly supplied with clay, I found that sentence
hard to actually commit to print...2-3 dumptruck loads of sand would
improve my garden immensely.)

i'd take 2-3 dumptruck loads of shredded
bark over sand any time as that forms such a
nice layer on top of the clay that the worms
can enjoy. helps keep things moist and cool
when it gets hot.

i've found that adding sand to clay is often
just asking to make very hard soil and that the
added organic matter is much better (and lighter
to move ). last winter growing the winter
wheat and winter rye as a green manure/cover crop
that was turned under a few weeks before planting
was the best thing i'd ever done for soil texture
and making the clay much easier to deal with this
spring. lovely results in many respects, only a
few negatives which don't bother me at all.


songbird