Clay Soil

[Graeme]

My garden's drainage is very poor and most things that's planted either dies or has poor results. Does anyone know what sort of plants thrive in these conditions?

 

[breezer]

try
http://www.waterloogardens.com/care_sheets/cs_spec_cond/cs_clay_soil.htm

 

[Jimmy]

There are many plants that like a clay soil and a trip to the library will find them for you, as for `normal` plants I have had the same problem in my garden with clay soil.
What I did was to dig out a hole much larger (approx 2-3 ft round) hole and fill with nice topsoil, compost and fertilizer to create a sort of micro-climate for the plant and it worked great, by the time they get big enough for there roots to be encroching in to the clay they are well established and don`t seem to mind.

 

[Graeme]

I will take your advice this spring jimmy. And thanks for that link breezer...thats saved my trip to the library for sure!!

 

[wossie6]

have you thought about putting in land drainage?i had the same problem as you,infact it was a concrete yard before i started,i dug down about 2 foot dug out a few trenches and laid 80mm perforated polypipe,connected these to a exiting gully drain,burried pipes with gravel,and filled it up with 20 tonne of topsiol.i have now got a lawn and flower borders (only garden in street ) well worth the effort

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

Have the same problem as you where I live (15m south of B'ham). that bad in fact that when I dug a pond, after one spades depth of crap soil I hit solid (patchy) clay, realised I probably didn't need the liner I had brought. What I do now is for every three spadefuls of soil add a scoop (two hands full) of sharp sand or "garden" grit + a shovel full of recycled compost from local authority (they used to be called councils, what happened while I was away? I wouldn't give them authority !!) and another "handfull" of pea grit if available and give a good mix/chop up. Breaks it up nicely and we have palms, agave, bananas etc. etc. doing quite well.
Another alternative is a load of horse muck in autumn, had this at my last house and the next years lawn was the greenest I had ever seen (we had toooo much and what do you with a pile of sh*te ?).

Scoby

 

[Graeme]

Thanks for the advice scoby, but Ive got enough problems with cats crapping in the garden without willingly adding more!

Ive nearly finished a pond as well, with just the edging left to do. Ever since I dug that cursed hole out the back, it's rained every day since.

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

Ah but thats where Chance comes in. Chance by the way is a cat hating dog !!