Ive read in a posting by Eric that clay soil is very fertile:
http://www.flowergenie.co.uk/ideas/forum/index.php?topic=1205.msg7809;topicseen#msg7809so thought it was time to relate this little story about our summer project.
I convinced my son (Simon) and his wife (Keelin) to grow some veg in my garden this year, in a part of the garden which had lay-ed fallow (mmm
need to do more than spell check that expression) for a number of years. It was late April by the time we started. Nettles and weeds abounded. To my surprise, there was quite a lot of clay under the topsoil. Being Ireland, the soil was wet and heavy and not a good introduction to gardening for the "kids".
In the above topic, Eric refers to 'grow taller clay' and that I well understand. That was exactly what we worked through that first day. Welly boots had to be de-mucked regularly! Enough to put the kids off gardening for life, I thought.
Anyway, we got the weeds cleared and most of the patch dug over that day. I continued and dug the rest. I was hoping for some nice weather over the weekend so that it would be in better shape when they returned for the second session!
Unfortunately not. Undeterred, we broke the clay up as best we could, and emptied as much compost as I could muster over the patch, and dug it over.
Time for sowing. Keelin read out the instructions on the seed packet - sow half an inch deep in well raked soil etc. We looked at the lumps of clay and laughed.
We sowed Lettuce, Carrots and Beetroot on the evening of that second session.
I finished off by sowing Parsnips and we left a patch with a very high clay content for another day.
To my surprise, everything germinated in abundance, except the Parsnips!
The harvest?
Very very good! We've been self sufficient in those veggys this year. The Lettuce are the nicest Ive ever tasted!
I'm not a great Beetroot lover, but I just had to give them a go, and soon acquired a taste.
All in all, a great return for our efforts. I'm very relieved about that. It was a pleasure to have their company in the garden, and of course that wild patch is now cultivated!
So, to give Ian encouragement (see the link above to the Into topic) that clay soil may be really unpleasant to work with, but you can look forward to very good results.
Pics to follow.
