Our garden is located behind what is now my husband's shop, but there are clearly covered over doors on the back of it and we're thinking at one time it had chickens or pigs or something in it (probably pigs).
'Nway turning over the garden I think I've hit stone dust (a.k.a. sacrete or there are some other names, gravel & concrete mix). Around the edges of what would have been the pen, I can get down about 1.5' but the worst spots it 3-4" before it's just solid.
I'm trying to remember the name of the carrots I grew before that do really well in clay soil and will push down into the stone dust to break it up. Chanteny? ... something. Or any other carrot suggestions?
Else can I plant that will help to break this up? Parsnips? Anything else?
I'd like to grow something all around my other planned plants in the worst spots.
eta: Oh & something that I can grow fairly close together so it will break it all up, I'm not really worried about how they turn out. Carrots store well & I can use them to feed the animals.
We'll be adding lots of compost (LOTS AND LOTS!!) over the next few years but the first batch isn't quite ready yet.
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applestar
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- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
I think alfalfa is the one for hard alkaline soil as well as hardpan clay....
Daikon radish is often mentioned and you can't forget the pioneer weeds -- evening primrose and dock as well as thistles. Think about what you often see along dry gravelly roadside.... You could get the culinary and herbal versions of them although they won't be as tough as their weedy cousins.
In my garden, sunflowers and corn do phenomenal jobs opening up the clay hardpan.
Daikon radish is often mentioned and you can't forget the pioneer weeds -- evening primrose and dock as well as thistles. Think about what you often see along dry gravelly roadside.... You could get the culinary and herbal versions of them although they won't be as tough as their weedy cousins.
In my garden, sunflowers and corn do phenomenal jobs opening up the clay hardpan.
I'm surprised your corn/sunflowers have done so well in the hard clay, I've found mine in the worst areas will get shallow rooted & fall over when they're ripe 
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Diakon Radish were the ones I was trying to remember
; I an NOT planting @&#* thistle in the vegetable garden 
I just spend the last week digging it all out!!!
.Diakon Radish were the ones I was trying to remember
; I an NOT planting @&#* thistle in the vegetable garden I just spend the last week digging it all out!!!
"Thistles" cover a very large family. Artichokes, for example, are thistles. OTOH, I pull out sow thistle weeds like there's no tomorrow (even from other people's yards, if I see one when walking my dogs) if I get half a chance.nes wrote: I an NOT planting @&#* thistle in the vegetable garden
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
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TheWaterbug
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I'll endorse the (insanely expensive) [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=200613#200613]Meadow Creature broadfork[/url] for stuff like this.applestar wrote:I fork/fracture the clay -- maybe that gives them the foot... toe... Roothold they need.
It's working out really well on my extremely hard soil.
