Generally clay soil is inhospitable to grow plants due to its reputation. It is having the tendency to hold a large amount of water. It is due to its high absorbent nature. The problem may arise also due to the dense nature of that soil. Actually most of the plants find difficult to grow their roots through in such soil type. But when compared to its high nutrients content and its absorbent nature, it won’t need to water frequently when compared to other soil types.
Don’t afraid if your yard is having this clay soil. You can very well work with this soil type to grow your plants. You have to modify the yard to make it possible. The following suggestions help you to use clay soil to grow your plants.
The first thing you need to do is, add some additions to the soil to make it ready to plant your saplings. Get some pine back humus and fully decayed leaf mold and mix them completely. Then mix it with the clay soil. It is enough to add 25% of it to the soil. If the soil is still predominant even after adding them, then add more to it. Don’t add peat moss, wood, sawdust and sand with them. To get a good mixture, you need to dig up to six inches down the ground.
To improve your clay, add some sand in addition it. It will help in improving the texture and soil draining when compared to previous mixture. Some may use builder’s sand and some other may use sand directly from river beds. Of which builder’s sand is more ideal to mix with clay as it contains many more solid particles. It will also improve the aeration in the soil particles.
Then dig the soil well around so that oxygen can penetrate it thoroughly. Make some holes in ground by making use of a stick or trowel or a spading fork. This will actually help in loosening the soil and also to let more air inside the soil. By doing so, you are actually keeping your plants healthy since it is improving the infiltration rate of water in the ground.
People living in hot climate have to water the clay soil more periodically in order to keep them wet. This is also suitable during summer reason. This is because, during those day’s soil will be hard and it will stop the growth of plants by not allowing their roots to penetrate deeply in to the ground. This will make the roots to get dry quickly and starve to death.
