Re: Amending clay soil?

In a message dated 5/12/1999 2:49:30 PM Central Daylight Time, 
SSaxton@Schwabe.com writes:

<< I just ran into a fellow gardener at a local nursery and was lamenting our
 clay soil in the PNW and was mentioning that for some of the plants I wanted
 to try that were definitely not moisture lovers I was going to try pea (1/4
 inches minus) gravel in the plant holes/beds.  She mentioned that a mail
 order nursery in this area is doing that standardly in all their beds now.
 My trial is new, but has anyone else tried this successfully in clay soil?
  >>
If you cannot replace the clay soils then what will work well is a mixture of 
sharp sand and the pea rock, but make sure the rock is crushed rock not river 
rock.
You want the rock with the sharp edges and not the round rock. The round rock 
will work if nothing else is available.

Use a good amount of compost too.

You should not mix your soils when they are wet but wait till they are dry 
and use a tiller to mix the components.

Sand and clay do not equal concrete unless you do not know how to mix 
properly work the soil when dry and use as much leaf liter as you can find.


Paul

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