How to deal with clay soil?

[HonoluluGirl]

We have dense red clay soil. It's really hard when it's dry - difficult to dig into. When it's wet, it retains a lot of moisture and clumps up (almost like pottery clay - slippery and clumpy). You can ball it up in your fist. What can I add to the soil to make it looser? Thank you.

[gumbo2176]

Man, I feel your pain. I too started out with a heavy clay soil, only mine was jet black, not red. It was so bad when I first tilled the garden that it took me almost a week to turn over a 20'x45' plot. I'd have to stop the tiller every 3 ft. or so to scrape the tines of the clay build-up.

Like Jane, AKA Marlingardener said, organic matter and time is the answer if you want to use the traditional method of planting. My garden is now going on 10 years in the house I'm in and over that period of time I've added literally tons of organic material. I can now put a spade in the ground and bury it to the top of the blade with relative ease. It will come around, but it is not something that will happen over night.

Raised beds are a good alternative, but that can get a tad expensive with building the beds then filling them with garden soil. I have one of them that is 12' long x 4' wide and 1' deep. That is used mostly for things like beets, carrots, onions and garlic====root crops.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Already mentioned many loads of organic material.

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Eric

[rainbowgardener]

Yup, like everyone said. I have pottery grade yellow clay. The beds I have been gardening for a decade are dark and loose. I turn them over now just with a shovel. Turn a shovel full and just tap it and it falls apart into a soft seed bed. Just from adding lots of compost and mulch,

Along with adding all the organic matter you can in fall and spring, keep your beds well mulched all the time. it keeps them from drying out and hardening up and then breaks down and adds more organic matter to your soil.

Make your compost pile and compost EVERYthing. I collect bags of fall leaves that people put at the curb and bring them home and feed them into the compost pile all through the season. Check places like Starbucks for coffee grounds for your compost pile. Kitchen scraps, paper towels, pulled weeds and trimmings, scooped out kitty litter (if you use non-clay, organic litter, like corn, wheat, paper based), shredded paper, etc etc. Check out our composting forum!

[HonoluluGirl]

Thank you everyone! We have 2 compost piles going right now. Looks like we'll need a lot more.

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