"RobertM" wrote


My name is Robert and im a keen gardener from Wales ! !

Now that we have gotten the formalities out of the way we can get down
to business !
My question to you is this - If i want to plant shrubs , plants and
flowers in soil which is clay then how do i first of all prepare the
ground ?


As others have said, clay holds on to nutrients and therefor is normally a
fertile soil. It's just a pain for the gardener. Clay can be and often is
acid, my allotment with a Thames clay/silt soil is about pH5.5 (neutral is
pH7) and I grow blueberries. If you want to improve it for shrubs then dig
in lots of organic material, well rotted horse manure (or swan, don't ask)
with sawdust is an excellent breaker up of clay IME but it must be well
rotted and must be incorporated well too. First I would check the pH to see
what you have and go from there depending on what you want to grow, if you
do incorporate lots of organic material that will affect the pH too, so keep
checking. One point that I must stress is that you have to pick the right
moment to work a clay soil as regards moisture.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK