I've been interested in everyone's comments about clay soil ever since we
moved to a heavy clay soil area, and until our Australian spring a couple of
months ago, had decided that I'd lose maybe half the tropical plants I'd
been nurturing at our previous residence - although they were mostly potted.
Stick them in the clay, and oops, looks like they just weren't gonna handle
winter/spring, etc.

However, in the interim, from the advice that you people have been offering,
I'd taken very good care of the drainage, and spring has taken care of the
growth, now I'm gonna use the weeds I've been saving and drying, as well as
the compost (better dug in, as previously commented) and also heaps of
newspaper.

My herb garden is showing the benefits of this already, and now I'm gonna
experiment with the rest of my garden beds.

Too bad I wanna use rock mulch, because I can't use that until I've
successfully taken care of what sits directly below the rocks!

But, thanks to all you EXTREMELY helpful people, I'm looking forward to
having an excellent garden within a year or so, "other things being equal"!

Casey
www.twistedirony.com


"JNJ" wrote in message
...
All of your replies were helpful. I will keep adding compost and
mulching
and
composting and mulching and composting and mulching and composting and
mulching
and.... I was just hoping for something faster, sigh.

Chuckle Well, you COULD hire a bulldozer operator, take up the top 6-8
inches of soil, then hire a dump truck and a crew to bring in the rich
soil
you want, and dump and spread it. That would take care of the vast
majority
of plants.

who you will find out side composting and mulching

Come Judy, join us in the garden. We are all composting and mulching and
composting and mulching and pulling weeds and mulching and clearing debris
and composting and.... :P

James