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Wed, Nov 3, 10 at 14:28
| I live in a house that the former owners had a dry creek, river bed. I have since removed the river stones and the black weed barrier. Under that, is about 2 feet of (I think) sandbox sand. It is not horticulture grade sand. Would you mix with a pitchfork all the soils together or would you just lay compost over it. It drains much too fast for my vegetable garden. The area is about 7' by 12'. It is not realistic the remove the sand, I have no place to dump it, the soil line all around the property is about the same height as the cement line. I live in an urban area on a plot that is about 100'by 80'. I do like the clay once you have enough amendments added, and will not break your pitchforks. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by daylilyfanatic4 Zone 6 SE NY (My Page) on Thu, Nov 4, 10 at 6:23
| Not an expert but if I were you I'd try to break up the clay to a relatively deep level below the sand and then add tons of compost. Alternately you could build raised beds. Just remeber the sand has almost no nutrient value and if you leave the clay untouched it will act like a pot bottom and hold water and roots in the sand. |
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| I have sand for soil, several feet deep and it too drains too fast except in the spring when the water table rises, What the sand you have needs is organic matter, the same thing that has helped my sand hold adequate amounts of both moisture and nutrients. It does not sound like the clay below is keeping water from drainig from your soil. |
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| As stated, by all means do add organic matter to the sand. I would advise strongly against mixing the sand with the clay. That often leads to serious compaction issues that are exceedingly difficult to correct. |
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| This is what I do with NC red clay. I rip with a ripper about 10 inches deep. Take good compost and apply 2 inches deep and then put 3 to 4 inches of sand on the compost. Roto-till all the way to the bottom... Not exactly a garden setup but a lawn around here will get off to a good start. |
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- Posted by borderbarb San Diego county (My Page) on Sat, Nov 6, 10 at 14:52
| How deep is the clay layer? If not too deep/thick, seems worth while to incorporate OM into the clay and then OM added to the sand, will increase porosity and prevent clay from stopping drainage. I've learned that anything involving clay soils is a multi-year 'adventure'. But the pay-off is great soil! Perhaps improving one section at a time will take the curse off of the work involved, invite 'nature' in as a partner. The 'unimproved' section can be seeded with a plant with deep roots to mine the clay and make OM to dig into the soil. Alfalfa is said to have deep/wide root systems, and it is attractive. |
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