Let's see those '11 gardens!

Clay keeps the water from draining and it's hard for roots to work through. You don't want your plants sitting in water. As long as the topsoil is more than a foot deep the clay may work to your advantage by allowing you to water less. In sandy soil the water passes right through it and dries too fast. Lots of organic material (compost) fixes everything, sand or clay.

[Scothew]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

Clay keeps the water from draining and it's hard for roots to work through. You don't want your plants sitting in water. As long as the topsoil is more than a foot deep the clay may work to your advantage by allowing you to water less. In sandy soil the water passes right through it and dries too fast. Lots of organic material (compost) fixes everything, sand or clay.

Im not sure how much top soil I really have, i dont think its a foot honestly. Most of it was pulled to the part of the property next to me when it was initially cleared off years ago.

Originally Posted by Scothew

Im not sure how much top soil I really have, i dont think its a foot honestly. Most of it was pulled to the part of the property next to me when it was initially cleared off years ago.

Sounds like what I started with, except our "clay" is a really fine grained sand, like powder, sometimes called "mudstone" here. I finally gave up on it and built boxes. I would go with Jamie's advice, above. That's about how I do it, too.

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

Sounds like what I started with, except our "clay" is a really fine grained sand, like powder, sometimes called "mudstone" here. I finally gave up on it and built boxes. I would go with Jamie's advice, above. That's about how I do it, too.

We have real bad Adobe clay here. about 13 years ago I ended up building a 13' x 4' raised bed also. Anything I cant fit in there goes into pots.