Conquering clay
How do you know you have clay? The hand texture test in the last issue should assist you to establish if you have clay soil.
Simply put, if you can roll a soil sample into a 5mm cylinder and form it into a horseshoe shape without it cracking - then
you have clay soil. You may also have noticed that your soil forms clods that stick like glue to your wellies and the surface
cracks in dry weather? Going forward, do you plant to leave it as is? Or do you plan to accommodate your planting and
garden design around having clay? If you plan to work around the soil conditions, then start with selecting plant species
that are clay tolerant.
Suitable plants for alkaline soils;
Acer (Maple)
Juniperus
Betula (birch)
Crataegus (hawthorn)
Acacia
Fuchsia
Marigold
Roses
Pansy
Should you have a garden design and planting plan that is that consists of a species list that will not thrive successfully in
clay. Then setting about improving the soil needs to be included in your adventure towards having a garden haven.
To understand why clay behaves the way it does, let us look at a few characteristics.
Grain size is very small in comparison to other soils, causing grains to compact
together very closely.
As grain size decreases, water retention increases, smaller grains have smaller
spaces, and therefore water does not move as freely though the soil.
Clay has high water retention characteristics and this causes roots submerged
in water for extended periods of time to rot, as water drains very slowly through clay.
Due to slow draining water, soil remains saturated long after average
or sandy soils have drained. It is also much slower to warm up in spring.
Clay particles are flakes, therefore compact easily. As compaction occurs, particles orientate parallel to each
other, pore volume reduces and available water capacity decreases. This makes it difficult for roots to grow.
Clay soil tends to have a higher pH. You would do well to select plants that grow well in alkaline soils.
To get a more stable soil, will involve modifying the structure of the soil to have a greater range of grain size
and pore space to enable air and water to access the soil profile.
The fine particle characteristic typical of clay soils make it hard to manage, but are also potentially very fertile
when treated in the right way

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