Back to Eden Garden Beginner Clay Soil and Leaves Experiment

Tips, Tricks

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Ok so my advice is add amendments. I'm not sure where you are on this project but think of soil like this; the water needs to be able to penetrate, slowly soak down and then away from the plants roots so that they aren't drenched and then return to the water table below. With clay soil it is hard for water to run through it. Imagine it is like super thick mud and the water just sits in it. This is bad for your plants. So to help that you are some sand to your clay soil. Sand alone holds nothing, no water, no nutrients for plants. Everything just easily passes through. So adding sand to clay HELPS to clay to almost open up a little, like adding room between the clay pieces so your water can to through and not drench your roots. Then the other thing you need is organic matter. Clay lacks that but so does most soil types. So with your compost you can add that. Or you can use just straight aged animal manure, not fresh. Fresh manure burns your plant roots. If you are going to prep a bed NOW for next year you can do newspaper then fresh manure then hay or leaves over that and let it set for the year and then plant in it next year and by then it will be super happy soil for you. For your plot this year I would say to put down newspaper to kill the grass, put down aged manure or compost, put hay on top of that (this is sheet mulching) water it all and let it age at least a week or two. Then you can plant in it. Also, to improve your soil structure elsewhere where you think you might want to add trees, berry bushes or another garden plot you can throw out some clover seeds into your grass. It won't kill your grass but clover is nitrogen fixing and tends to repair soil in less than a year. And it also blooms pretty little flowers so it will look super cute, too!

I'm starting my third year of BTE gardening. The newspaper underneath makes a big difference with the grasses. It takes my soil (hard clay) about two months under wood chips to be diggable. Good luck this year!

New here :) We are trying the BTE method this year in one of our locations. My friend/pastor got the beds ready last fall. We have red clay soil with LOTS of rocks (SW MO).
I'm kind of taking a break on videos right now but might come back soon with some garden activity updates. The weather is supposed to be beautiful the next few days and excited to get out in the garden!
I'll have to check out your blog too :) sounds like we have a few things on common.
Have a great day! -Joanne

All the best Amanda, looking forward to seeing your garden come on. I know the feeling when You see some life in the ground, worms, etc...

Have you ever looked into square foot gardening?