Gardening friend Nancy checks in with her experiences on amending heavy clay soils:
"I wanted to pass my tip along for clay soil. I made a raspberry bed and one end turned out to be just clay. I added few inches of peat moss, lots of chopped leaves, and several inches of old horse manure (endless supply of that!). After hand flipping it over several times, voila, good looking soil. This is the time of year to find leaves. They are a wonderful soil amendment."
I agree with Nancy that chopped leaves make a wonderful organic soil amendment.
If you don't have an endless supply of horse manure feel free to use any aged manure you can get your hands on or any good quality compost--we sell some great composts right here at Skillin's that would easily fit the bill.
Now Nancy, I bet you didn't know that raspberries are about my favorite fruit (along with blueberries), so next year if you would like to drop a sample of your raspberries by I would be glad to evaluate your raspberry production!
Thanks Nancy for your contribution. We love recommendations from gardeners. Feel free to reply to us by clicking on "comments" just below or by sending us a note at info@skillins.com!
Mike Skillin
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3 comments:
Peat moss is not a renewable resource and garden trends frown on its use as a soil amendment. Compost works just as well (and I hear planting potatoes and throwing organic material on the surface of the soil is one of the best things that can be done for clay).
I find it rather difficult to believe that any place in Maine has trouble with clay soils. Rocks and tree roots seem to be worse than anything around here.
Firefly, thanks for your comments. Peat moss is taking a tough rap today as different people have different opinions about how renewable it is.
As a gardener, I tend to not use peat moss and I certainly advocate the use of compost and as much organic matter as possible as good long-term soil amendments to help facilitate beneficial organisms and bacteria to live in the soil and help break clay down.
I have also recommended Soil Perfector by Espoma as the kiln dried minerals will help provide air pockets into dense clay.
I know of many good Maine gardeners who struggle with clay. It is out there!
Thanks again,
Mike Skillin
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