"Dave" *m wrote in message
...
Hi all,

We had a local landscape company help us design and prepare some
garden beds. Around here we have almost entirely red clay soil. The
consultant arranged to have 2-3 inches of topsoil and leaf mold put on
top of the new beds. I asked him about the need to work it in. He
said that he's be wasting my money if he were to try to roto-till it
in. And that as I planted the ammendments would work themselves in
and also eventually leach down into the existing clay soil. When I
plant perrenials I'm trying to mix the ammendments in as much as
possible, but I also worry that the clay around the hole will still
keep rainwater around the roots and rot my plants.

Also, we want to put down lanscape fabric (over the ammendments but
under the mulch), but will this keep mulch and other organic matter
from eventually mixing with the soil? How about preventing plants
like daylillies or back-eyed susans from propagating?

Clay soil does not necessarily translate to poor drainage and most plants
will grow happily and well in clay as long as the drainage is reasonable. I
wouldn't worry too much about the perennials. For the most part, they are
smaller plants initially so no need to dig a large planting hole and the
roots will be able to spread relatively easily into the unamended soil. For
larger plants (trees and shrubs), dig wide and shallow planting holes and
plant high (top of root ball above the soil surface), mulching up in a mound
to cover any exposed portions. This will greatly reduce the "bathtub" effect
of digging a deep planting hole into less than ideally draining soil. And
you do want to avoid amending planting holes, specially in clay soils - the
difference in sol textures of the amended vs. the non-amended soils will
create more drainage and water penetration problems than it will help.

Avoid using landscape fabric under the mulch - it is a waste of time and
money and can be detrimental to your intent to lighten your heavy soils. It
is not very effective at supressing weeds, makes it difficult to divide or
transplant, and will prevent your mulch from breaking down, migrating into
and improving the existing soil. A good thick layer of organic mulch -
leaves, composted manure, garden compost, pine straw - will be just as
effective at weed supression and will enrich and improve the texture of your
soil over time

pam - gardengal