blamebrampton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
blamebrampton) wrote2009-06-05 11:42 pm
blamebrampton) wrote2009-06-05 11:42 pm
Hallelujah and saints be praised!
It is a long weekend, and I have no work work to do. At last, I can get stuck in and clean the house, beta fics, write and read (and [Poll #1411482][Poll #1411482]
no subject
Gardening question (since you offered): I have dry but poorly drained heavy clay soil that apparently eats bulbs. Now that a professional has cleared all of the weeds and self-sown trees out of it, it is a big garden - what do I do with it? (Apart from setting up my sun lounger.)
part one
Clay soils are the bane of most gardeners as they have the annoying habit of both holding water enough to rot plant roots and bulbs, and also being able to dry out to the point that they could be used as the setting for an Australian road movie.
On the upside, clay soils are almost always nutrient rich, it's just a matter of being able to alter the soil structure to the point that it's conducive to happy plant life.
There are any number of ways that you can do this. I am operating under the assumptions that you do not have a massive budget and that you do not want to do an enormous amount of work.
Happily, clay soils should not be heavily dug, so you've saved a load of work there. Because the soil particles are very fine and 'sticky', digging will collapse what little air spaces there are between the particles. So your garden is perfect for a no-dig approach. What you need to do is to add loads of organic matter and increase the soil biota to a point that it starts to turn from clay to loam on its own.
Start by using a claybreaker. Scattering garden gypsum is traditional and cheap. It's pH neutral and can just be cast over the soil at the rates on the packaging and then watered in. Takes a little while to work and the dust can be unpleasant to work with (it's harmless unless it gets in your eyes, wear safety glasses, and you can wear a mask if you like, though it has no warnings on inhalation or ingestion), but easily the best value for money. If your soil is waterlogged due to rain, this is the product to choose.
For a slightly faster and much easier to use product, there are a range of clip-on claybreakers that attach to your hose and can just be sprayed over the area. These can often be purchased in multi-packs at a good price, but do take a look at the suggested area covered, as it can be a fair bit less than the garden area you need to treat and you may need to buy several. They're absolutely foolproof to use, and over-application is not really a problem (aside from the waste, same goes for gypsum).
You will need to repeat this a few times in the first year and possibly annually thereafter depending on how your soil rehab goes. Now it's time to add rich organic matter.
Anything that is organic, nutrient-rich and well-rotted will do (essentially, it's all types of compost, even though only some are labelled as such). You can go for compost, stable manure, cow or sheep manure, leaf litter, agricultural byproduct such as composted sugar cane pulp, composted chicken manure ... whatever you can get in bulk.
And when I say bulk, I mean bulk, ideally we're talking tonnes. Don't balk at the idea: you can often purchase very cheap compost in large quantities from your council, and I have seen products that cost A$10 for 30L sold at A$60/tonne. As a rule of thumb, you want a depth at of least 4 inches (10cm), though you could easily double that. Calculate the area and multiply by depth for the volume, most suppliers should be able to convert that into weight.
If you are not sure of local suppliers, ring your council, any local community gardens or any local landscaping suppliers for recommendations. Check the price of delivery, too, as it even for smaller amounts it can be cheaper to have it delivered loose than bought packaged.
part two
If the composting process is still taking place, leave your organic matter in a heap, dust it with blood and bone if it looks as though it could do with a bit of a speed up (you won't need this for stable manure!) and turn it over a few times a week over the next few weeks, it will quickly finish rotting. If it's all calm and smells like rich humus, then you are fine to just start spreading.
Using the back of a steel rake, or a shovel, spread your compost across the soil. Then, if cash allows, cover it in a layer of straw, hay, or other bulky but relatively fast-degrading organic mulch, such as leaf litter, chaff, sugar cane waste, etc. This will take one afternoon, even for a big suburban garden, assuming a medium level of fitness.
Water the whole lot with a click-on sprayer of seaweed emulsion attached to your hose (this is the single most useful product known to gardening kind).
You will probably want to start planting around now. If you are looking for a flower garden or vegie garden, just stick to shallow to medium-rooted plants for the first season and then start introducing larger plants and root crops once the soil starts to crumble. Bacteria and worms will move in with all the organic matter, and they and the plant roots are going to do all the hard work for you. Lawn is fine, and can be broadcast as seed straight over the compost layer, though you may want to add a few cm of topsoil.
You can also do all of the above a bit at a time, and just move the sun lounger to suit if it all sounds a bit too much!
Don't plant trees or shrubs down into the soil at this point, you will just be creating a hole that will act like clay bucket and fill up with water when it rains and drowns the roots. Instead, create a good-sized (three times the rootball or more) mound of good soil/compost (retaining it with bricks or the like if needs be) and plant into that, or use large pots. You can plant a mini-garden of bulbs or annuals over the rest of the mound.
From here on, add more organic matter several times a year, regular organic mulches and one or two compost scatterings a year, plus feeding with organic fertilisers will do the trick. Water with seaweed emulsion once every month or two. Worm castings and worm wee are brilliant, too. You will be amazed at how quickly your soil improves. Keep an eye on the water; if it is raining a lot, do not add extra. If it is dry, water regularly, even if you need to use rinse water from the laundry, bath or rinsing kitchen vegies in areas that have hosepipe bans. Regular water is an essential ingredient in fixing the soil structure, though the better the structure, the better it will hold and drain water.
Finally, look for plants that will do well in your richer, heavier soil. Many woodland plants are perfect, and the more things you have actively growing, the better your soil will be, since the roots bring in air, improve structure, and encourage bacteria, worms and microflora and fauna. Talk to your local nursery about suitable varieties (look for an actual horticulturalist rather than just the general staff!)
Sorry for the longwindedness, but it's a complex problem, yet one that can be easily conquered. Good luck, and let me know how you go!
(Edited because I cannot type!)
Re: part two
I love the way you assume I have a hose, or anything as useful as an outdoor tap to attach one to. My flatmate's boyfriend found what he decided was an outdoor tap and used it to clean his bike. Turned out it was a crucial part of the hot water system, and draining all the water from it made the boiler not work. Why do I still sometimes believe what people tell me purely because they say it in an authoritative tone? Am I really not smarter than that?
Anyway, that is some good advice, although I may cheat and stick to pots for now, on the grounds that I have already dropped a load of cash fixing a garden that technically does not belong to me. There are a few things like aquilegia and peonies that have done all right on their own that I will probably move around a bit now they are done flowering, and I have done a few pots with smelly herbs down the back garden.
What I couldn't work out with the bulbs is why the ones I planted died horribly, whereas the bluebells that are in the next bed down flourish every year. (This was what led me to think my bulbs would be OK.) Gardens are weird.
I will keep this advice on file for if I can ever afford a place of my own, because the Bath area is pretty much all clay pan, and this will come in handy.
Re: part two
And it IS low effort, once you've spread a few tonnes of compost, you're sorted ;-)
Re: part two
So would spreading around a few tonnes of compost, but the very idea makes my lazy-meter set the alarm bells a-ringing. :oD