clay

[Bernard]

the soil in my new garden is full of clay. Will this be a problem for me in the spring when I turn it into a vegetable patch? i heard somewhere that clay can be good for growing, but for growin what?

[Dave]

I've got clay soil at my allotment and never found it to be a problem. Parsnips seem to do very well, I pulled up a parsnip that weighed a kilo last week. The other things that seemed to do well were, beans, courgettes, beet spinach. The only things that seemed to do badly were potatoes and sweedes but I think that was because I was using sprouted shop bought potatoes and not seed ones and didn't put any compost down. The sweedes were attacked by pigeons before they had a chance to grow so I don't think the soil made much difference.

[ken68]

Hi Bernard.....Clay is traditionally suitable for growing brassicas, and the land MUST be turned over now for frost to work it down.If you find potatoes difficult to grow in your heavy land, you could try 'no dig', and just grow in mulch on top of the soil. It really does work and I did this for several years when I had loads of grass cuttings to get rid off.They came out clean, too, and less slug damage....Regards Ken