Improving My Clay Soil

Improving my clay soil when I have no clue (or had no clue) what clay soil is when you start is not the most enjoyable learning experience.

I grew up in central Ohio which has good soil and now I'm in northeastern Indiana which has this really nasty slimy grey stuff. It's not dirt as I know it but it is what I have to work with.

I'm not sure what the soil toward the top would have been like if the builders hadn't taken whatever passes for top soil in this part of the country away. I'm not sure what they did with it but I know they took it and I'm a bit annoyed about it.

When we moved to this house (several years ago) the soil was totally barren of critters. No worms or other creepy crawlies to be seen. I finally saw my first worm after about 2 years. I was thrilled and am still pretty protective of my worms. If your looking for fishing worms I'd suggest looking elsewhere. NOBODY is hurting one of my babies.

I kind of assumed when we moved in here that I could go out and clear sod and plant stuff. That's how it always worked in other places that I have lived but it didn't exactly work out. I had to learn about improving my clay soil and since I didn't realize exactly what I had it took me a bit of time and study.

I've learned a lot about things like "the bathtub effect" and various other unpleasant terms that people who garden in clay soil toss about casually.

I pretty much throw anything that will decompose into my planting beds and they are in different stages of becoming decent soil. The only thing that has not worked out well is peat. Peat and grey clay does not seem to be a good match.

My clay is happy with sand, mulch, grass clippings, shredded paper, and coffee grounds but not peat moss. I don't want to get into a big thing because I know most people do not approve of adding sand to clay but it's been working great for me. My soil couldn't get more like concrete so I wasn't too worried about adding sand to it.

Slowly but surely it is coming along and the proccess of improving my clay soil is about 2% complete.