14-07-2004, 12:04 PM
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Clay to good soil
In article ,
(simy1) wrote:
Dave Allyn wrote in message
. ..
Hey all, quick question for you. I have been given the option of
purchaing a lot next to me where a house burned down about 6mo ago.
I've always wanted a large garden, and orchard, and this seems like
the place to do it. The problem is, when they dug out the old house,
they filled the 12foot deep hole with solid clay. Is there anyway,
short of re-diggingthe hole and filling with good dirt, to reclaim
this land? would tilling compost into it do any good? Is there
something I can mix into the clay to get it to be better?
It will be wonderful to have a serious orchard and large garden.
I have two examples of clay having been tamed by large amounts of
organics, plus certain cover crops which can break soil, plus a few
years time.
For the large amounts, I suggest getting several loads of wood chips,
about 8 inches over the entire property. Top dress, don't dig in. They
will disappear in a few years and will provide most of the nutrients
fruit trees need (low N, but large amounts of everything else). The
earthworms that will turn them in will churn many times the volume of
the chips in clay. In time you may want to add extra fertilizer, and
adjust pH and N content, though fruit trees like it somewhat acid and
they prefer the nutrient profile that wood chips provide - so you may
not need any amendment (grapes are one of several exceptions). Wood
chips are cost-free, weed-free and fertilize. Their drawback is that
they will act more slowly than leaves or manure, and fertilize less
than manure, but all things considered (specially the tree company
taking the chips directly to your place free) wood chips can't be beat
for massive mulching of perennials.
For the cover crops, which you can plant for a few years as your trees
develop, I suggest potatoes, favas, mache, and chicories for the
edibles, and if you want just a green manure, a number of green
manures will also break the soil efficiently. These are plants that
are particularly agressive at penetrating clay, leaving all sorts of
dug-in organic matter, in small and big clumps, that will further
entice earthworms, provide drainage, etc.. favas and other legume
cover crops will provide N as well. There are other crops, like
carrots or beets, which also break the soil, but the final product is
not particularly attractive (poor carrots). I found chicories to be
incredibly aggressive in a patch filled with one foot of clay on sand
in my lawn (I used the seeds from a few radicchio plants gone to
seed), sending a thick taproot down several feet (which you don't eat
but is a bitch to uproot), very much like dandelions, but a much
thicker root. The patch is now (five years later) much nicer, I would
go as far as calling it loamy.
For the time, Rome was not built in a day. I have had for seven years
a jostaberry plant (which prefers heavy soil), in sandy soil, at the
fence with my neighbor. The neighbor soil is all grey clay (he filled
the yard for the horses). In time the soil under the jostaberry has
become much heavier and if you were to see that spreading bush you
would never guess that it was a pitiful thing five years ago. In time,
where you have plant or mulch cover, the soil will mix vertically a
lot but also laterally somewhat.
And don't forget the earthworms.......
K.
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