On Tue, 29 Apr 2003 00:44:50 -0700, Olushola wrote:

I have two 3'x10' areas in which I want to plant bushes and flowers. The
ground is hard as nails. I rented a 5HP tiller, but that just scratched
the surface. I was told to rent a jack hammer to break up the soil.

Does anyone have any solutions?


The only real way of breaking up a clay base is by infusing organic matter
in to it. Have caution when tilling soil that is more than 50% clay. If the
clay is wet it turns to clumps and when it dries... it turns to something
like rock. The other issues with tilling clay is the tiller will create
something called hardpan underneath the tilled soil. Water cannot
penetrate hardpan and will puddle and sheet off. You'll find that roots
are unable to penetrate hardpan also.

Seeing that you only have 60 square feet to amend, I'd suggest that you do
it by hand. You could double ditch the beds and add some sort of organic
matter, be it compost or even shreaded bark. If this sounds like too much
work for you, then I'd suggest that you berm the beds. Berming is when you
bring in new soil and mound it, then plant into the mound. Do your best to
integrate this new soil in with the clay so the plants will be able to
root into the clay base as the grow.

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