How Do I Improve Heavy Clay Soil in the Garden?

FINALLY the video I've been looking for, much appreciative. My entire property is black gumbo clay and when it get's wet it becomes a huge mess. So it seems raised beds for the short term gardening while I use all the tools you talked about on the area's I want to grow in ground. Thank You

Add wood chips and a little sand. Next question.

I bricked off a slightly raised bed about 12’ X10’ oval. Wanted a flower view out our bedroom window. Irrigated and dumped lots of gardening soil. Then waited. While waiting my husband dumped a lot of clay soil from a project he was working on the other side of the house. He was I’ll and his thinking was affected. Didn’t say a word. He’s been gone now ten years & im starting over. He was a wonderful husband and it was humorous in a way. Well, I’m tired of the ugly spot and I thank you for an education. Here I go!

Oh my God! Clay soil is such a nightmare 😫 i come from a beautiful lush area. I moved to Sacramento and everything i planted dies. Every Year i learn something new. All this work is such a pain in the butt 😫 im going to try this one last time. 😊

I can buy bandsaw sawdust (very fine chips) for about $1.50 a yard. Poplar is best, but Maple or Ash is good also. I have been adding that to my garden every few years for decades. The difference in running the tiller in my garden compared to the field 50' away is night and day

Every time I watch a Jenna's video I feel the urge to switch to incognito mode

Also consider dolomite lime. Not regular lime, that will make it worse.

Love your advice, Dave from Australia

why is sand bad?

I just rip up all the golden fall leaves and some twigs and hope for the best lol, im on day 3 in zone 6a!

Can you explane how to plant in dry sand

Clay field is very toff to plant in. How to do that?

Clay will crumble if it’s dry enough

clay is the bane of my existence. it wont allow my roots to grow....

Do you have any experience with conditioners?. In looking for advice on amending my clay soil. I have heard some mention these as well as humate liquid.

These were very helpful tips to improve the quality of our clay soils. Thanks for sharing.

Where did you get your shirt?

I know this is a gardening video—

—but I do not maintain a garden because I'm in suburban Chicago and I could go to the grocery store to purchase fruits and vegetables great quality cheaper than I can grow substandard vegetables.

Where I am highly interested is I am a lawn-affectionatto. I cannot get away with more than 6% organic material in the lawn.

I took a section of lawn a few years ago and took in eighty-two 85% clay area down to where it fits into the Loan category on the agronomy triangle. It was amazing that even dry the soil is so friable to clawing at it with my bare fingers.

And the myth of turning the soil into a brick was disproven: at least in the lawn I am taking care of. But I'm a very old man now in my late fifties and my back isn't what it once was, and the fixed price of renting mechanical lawn digging equipment just doesn't pay an 800 square foot area. Then there's the disposal cost of the clay and then the purchase cost of the sand and silt.

Therefore, this year, as I'm no longer going to take contractor work cuz they must buy the worst sod ever produced: I mean, whoever heard of Japanese Zoysia...???!!! Well that's what the picture this application on my cellular phone says that was installed on the lawn and taking care of.

And I think you were remiss in mentioning that while clay does hold alot of water, it plays keep-away with the water also. In this drought year in the Chicago area, I would water 1 inch into the lawn, but it failed to respond it started dying-out anyhow. I didn't think of this at the time but I surmise this is because the clay gets first dibs to the water for itself, and then anything after that it will leave for the grass.

In this way, the clay acts very much like a sand soil in that neither clay nor sand is beneficial to the grass like a Loam soil would be. The sand man only hold one part of water, and the claim a hold three parts of water, but it ties up two parts of equaling the water available in a sandy soil. A Lian soil will hold and make available two parts of water.

The only way of improving soil long term is to grow plants in it. The microbes that feed off plant root exudates are responsible for forming soil aggregates which improve soil function. All the other things you talked about may kickstart the process of growing plants that will do the job. Maximising Plant diversity and continuous photosynthesis to constantly feed a diversity of soil microbes will speed the process

Clay is the killer of wooden fence posts, because it retains water.

Great video! Genesis Biochar is a great way to get permanent carbon into your soil.

JMS bam your done ✅

Thanks ❤the video

clay chair or table

Wood chips sawdust free at saw mills.

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My entire property is nothing but awful clay or sand combo. In the garden spot I added two huge bails of peat moss in the spring, but it didn’t last for more than a couple of months because my voracious vegetables devoured it and the soil once again turned to clay and nothing grew well at all.

This time I’m going to do heavy mulching before winter and hopefully, eventually, it will improve this issue

We have stony heavy clay. We have been burying all our compost directly in the ground with sprinkles of gypsum when we have some on hand. Bought an auger this year to make the hole-digging so much easier. It's working and we now have an increasing depth of topsoil teeming with worms.

New follower. This spring was my first year to start a garden. I didn’t know what I was doing I’m still learning. The problem I noticed that I ran in to is I did a little tilling and the weeds took over also I didn’t use any mulch until late summer. By then it was too late weeds took over and Ive been having to water A LOT. So I’m getting ready to prep the grounds where my gardens are at. This was very helpful because I’m wanting to use the sources that I have readily available to me to make my no till soil better, help keep out weeds, and help hold moisture in so during the hot Texas 3 digit summer months it helps to cut back on watering some. Thank you. ❤

Step 1: Fence in the proposed garden area.
Step 2: Set up cage traps nearby groundhog holes.
Step 3: Release the groundhogs into the garden area.
Step 4: Wait for the groundhogs to escape.
Step 5: Fill the holes with organic matter.
Bonus tip. You can have smaller fences you can move around inside the garden so there are holes throughout the garden rather than just at the edges.

NOOOOOOOO I was sooo with you until you said to fork or turn the organic material into the soil. LEAVE IT ON TOP and let nature carry the nutrients into the soil over time. It doesn't take long. Also plant cover crops when you are not growing your garden plants. ALWAYS have a living root growing. The cover crop can become more top mulch and make room for the next crop. You said it. leave it on top and it will work it's way in.

Is this the same as RED clay soil?? It’s SO HARD!!! And when it’s dry it creates these long thick cracks like a freakin’ desert.

I did a 50/50 mix of my red clay soil and store bought potting soil and it still just turned into a hard block. I don’t know what to do.

MOBILIZATION IS KEY!!!! ❤️

Thanks!

Very informative and well explained video.

Hi Jenna, Great video! Do you prepare scripts for your narration? Best, Albert from SF

We tilled in yards upon yards of compost for the first two years. Then we dug in a lighter layer the third year. No dig this year. Ultimately it raised our whole soil level about 6-8"

I dug lateral trenches in the fall. About 1-2' wide with the backhoe. The clay is very sticky gums up the bucket often. Depth same as the width. I buried layers of leaves, mulch, compost, and chicken coop cleanout with pine shavings & straw. I buried them til spring. I also used the mower on cornstalks shredding the leaves leaving the roots. I tilled it up and was pretty nice. When planting 1ft mulch paths 1-2' planting patches between. On 50' * 12' it took some time, veggies are growing along with weeds. I'm only on the 2nd year and will keep adding as you said. I also add wood compost in each planting lane to add more nutrients on top to encourage worms. Has to better than last year corn finger size, lol. The chickens liked it. 😆🐔

You're correct. Mixing clay with sand is not a good idea.

I have hard clay soil arou d my oak trees. I would love to plant flowers between the roots. Do you think this could be possible if i plant these radishes for the winter to decompose first? This is so exciting!:)

I live in "Clay County Missouri" 🥲

so this was pretty.... relevant. haha Thank you!

thank you for your tip to NOT add sand. I heard that recently and it sounded strange but I was tempted to try it anyway, so thanks for the save there haha

Use gypsum, it reacts chemically with the clay & does all the work for you, just sprinkle in on in abundance or dig it in for a faster result. Good to add some organic matter to attract the worms too. In Australia we have lots of very dense clay but we grow everything just by using gypsum which we also have a lot of here & it is so easy to use.

New subscriber here. I'm in UK and our soil is very clay and your video is very informative and we have been using cow manure successfully and manure from our chickens but there are still areas that are bad.
Great advice
Mandy UK 🇬🇧

3 years huh

love this video as I also has a clay soil yard,

I'm a brand new subscriber. I can tell you know your stuff by the way you accurately described soil properties. I have been a Soil Scientist for 50 years - mostly in Western Ohio.
One thing about higher clay soil is TIME. Higher clay soil may only have a few days of workability in the planting season. Your techniques will give the gardener more working time as it will be able to be worked over a wider range of moisture content. Thanks for what you are doing. I know I will learn a lot from your very practical videos.

Hello. This is really good information. I live where it's clay clay clay all day. So I have a question, do I till the area first, make the raise beds, and then put down the organic matter or aged manure? Please get back to me asap. I am really interested.

Thanks!

Maybe woodchips??

I'm going to have to experiment with sand in a small portion, yep