Starting 2nd garden. Suggestions for clay?

[livinlovinlaughin]

We have tilled up a 2nd area for veggie gardening. It is mostly clay with some topsoil. We are looking for suggestions on getting the ground ready. We do compost but do not generate huge amounts in relation to the size of our gardens. Thoughts we have had are digging out about a foot of dirt and finding some cheap topsoil to till in. We have access to free aged horse manure and we raise chickens which produce compost for us. Advice? Experience?

[root*children]

I have alot of clay soil, though not as bad as i've seen in other areas of the state. I put on lots of manure and mix it right into the dirt i've dug up in the garden space. Then under each new planting i put a shovel-full of compost. I mulch thick with straw and grass clippings which will biodegrade relatively quickly and help add more organic matter to the soil

[livinlovinlaughin]

Originally Posted by root*children

I have alot of clay soil, though not as bad as i've seen in other areas of the state. I put on lots of manure and mix it right into the dirt i've dug up in the garden space. Then under each new planting i put a shovel-full of compost. I mulch thick with straw and grass clippings which will biodegrade relatively quickly and help add more organic matter to the soil

How much manure do you add? Do you worry about it raising the nitrogen levels too high? We usually add the manure in the fall for spring planting. Once we planted into a few handfuls of topsoil in the clay. It seemed like once the roots hit the clay they couldn't continue through the hard clay and the plant stopped growing.

I was wondering about straw or hay. Maybe when we spread seed for our winter wheat I should cover the seed with straw and then till it all in in the spring? How quickly does it breakdown I wonder?

[root*children]

For a new garden I do about 1/3 to 1/2 manure to existing soil. It's aged manure, so I don't worry about funking up any plantings. I would just put as much as you feel comfortable with

The underlayers of straw for me start to break down in about a month. In the Winter it would be slower though, since it's colder.

[Owen'nZoe]

It sounds like a garden you are preparing for next year? If so, I'd cover crop it this year. The cover crop mix I use has wheat, oats, rye, vetch and fava beans, and seems to work very well for my clay soil.

[livinlovinlaughin]

Originally Posted by Owen'nZoe

It sounds like a garden you are preparing for next year? If so, I'd cover crop it this year. The cover crop mix I use has wheat, oats, rye, vetch and fava beans, and seems to work very well for my clay soil.

Yes we are preparing for next year. We do plan on planting a cover crop this year. Is that all you do for your clay? Do you mix anything in?

[Owen'nZoe]

I also mix in as much compost as I can (as you mentioned, though, there never seems to be enough), and sometimes will buy some composted cow manure to add, but the cover crop and whatever compost you have will give a good start.

[SuburbanHippie]

When we first started our garden, it was almost all rock hard clay. We tilled in a ton (literally) of sand. It really helped.