If you decide to do this, you’ll want to do some deep research into soil replacement because it’s a huge disruption to the soil. Mushroom compost … Clay's soil particle shape is flat, or plate-like; meaning it's good at stacking on top of each other and creating a very "tight" soil. Thanks, Phil. Our yard has a lot of clay in the soil. What happens if you add 6 inches of a finer soil on top of a coarser soil below? I have read your book and really appreciate what you have gone through in order to provide a very comprehensive understanding of what is needed to build the soil to the way it should be. Balancing soil nutrient ratios is the other big factor in improving clay soils next to organic matter. If you instead rototill the sand into the clay, it doesn’t create a nice soil texture like you would think. There were several unforseens, but all in all the technique was viable.thanks, Bob. Timely info for me. Do you know where I can buy Bentonite clay in BC? Zeolites… How do they work? SOIL TEST. My garden has turned into sandy soil and nothing wants to go how can I fix it. Hi Trish, I don’t support Scotts, so I personally wouldn’t buy Miracle grow, but another organic potting mix would be good. Putting Clay in Compost is Good For Sandy Soils. I don’t know the acidity of the soil, but plants are grateful for ANY nutrients they get.I compost all my kitchen peelings and add some crushed eggshell. Both of these are poor organic gardening practices. Perhaps the beds aren’t level and so the water is sliding down to one side? Loved the info as I have heavy clay soil!  Can you tell me how to age coffee grounds before they are added to the soil? They are beautiful to paint but making one is equally challenging! If you can find calcium bentonite it should work better. My thought is that this could solve a lot of my problems. If you need to bring soil into your yard in order to build your garden, you must make sure to rototill it into the existing soil extremely well. Getting the proper nutrients in there will make a lot of things work better. Back to compost. I may still occasionally have some brief flooding but hopefully not as long lasting. It took more than a day to drain the first filling.This summer I spent breaking hard pan and building a finished compost pile. You’ll probably want more than justcompost for the top layer – a mixture of compost and soil. Maybe more clay? This also may happen if the builder brought in some topsoil that was clay based and put it on top of your sandy subsoil. Interestingly it moves out in all directions fairly equally – up, down and horizontally. Hi Lene, I’ve never used it, but from the little I know about it, it seems it could be worthwhile. My guess is it will settle to 6-9″ in height. Now just have sand and the raised beds with enough space to get around, and will divide them up into square-foot squares. Yes, alfalfa pellets are great. But you could add calcitic lime, aka calcium carbonate(not dolomite) at 10lbs/1000 sq ft and that may help over time. Zeolites just happen to have a whole lot more of them than clay. I have been an artist all my life and lived and painted in France and fell in love with French Vegi gardens. Understanding how water moves through clay and soil is crucial to landscaping. Bentonite is typically sold totally dominated by sodium (Na), as Na bonds tremendous amounts of water to the clay. At that time I’ll broadfork it again and maybe rototill. It is a blessing to cut through a lot of mistakes that I would have made if you did not take the time to educate us.Just a big THANK YOU! Then I incorporate compost over that whole area. I have piled close to 12” of compost and used coffee grinds with filters on top. When you add larger, heavier sand particles to this scenario, it weighs down the clay particles, making them even more impenetrable by water and nutrients. Now I’m wondering what to do. This is the same situation where that soil will get very wet before water will drain out. Soil texture test last year showed 75% clay, 15% silt and 10% sand. What do we do now? Personally, I’m not as interested in thechemistry side of things as the implications for us gardeners.All I know is that they’re both good at holding onto cations, but myunderstanding is that the honeycomb structure of (the right kind of)zeolites allows them to be added to a sandy soil without compacting. Prior to renovating our house, during the rain season the yard was a wet mess. A good portion of my compost is now in the bed and I am very hopeful for how it all turns out next summer.I did a pH test and found it to be about 7.3 so I think I should add a little sulfur this fall and let it settle in over winter. Perhaps it was just the poor condition of the plants? Otherwise, perhaps the soil is a little different on one side of the bed? I calculate 55% clay, 18% silt, 27% sand. One of the most commonly given pieces of advice on how to improve clay soil is to add sand. My bro-in-law was working home finalization and warrantee for a construction company and turned me loose on piles of excess sand at nearby home sites. Clay settled in the hole I dug, filled the whole bed. Professional fields actually install very expensive fan (suction) systems under the top layer of fine gravel and sand to keep the playing surface from getting boggy during rain games.The engineer who designed the surface for Legion Field in Birmingham, for the 1996 Olympic games, told me it would take up to 4″ of rain per hour and still remain playable. When consulting on soccer fields, keep something in mind. Love your articles Phil! It can save a lot of money in fertilizers over the long haul. It takes the addition of 50% of total soil volume to significantly change the texture of clay soils. Contact Us. or to clay for that matter? Water doesn’t seem to soak in at all. Thanks, Dale. But I have an idea and I’d like your opinion. What do you thing about  expandable shale? Laid black plastic for 4 months and killed off everything! Now your soil will be ready for planting. In addition to coffee grounds a gardening book suggested I read using alfalfa pellets. I’m surprised it’s sandy loam if it’s clodded up. Maybe I keep the seeds TOO wet when I plant them in flats or paper pots? If you bury them they stink to high heaven! We live in Vancouver (AKA the Wet Coast) and bought a house a year ago. It will have until next spring to be on the garden until we plant the garden. It’s got good colour and eventually feeds the soil. So forget sand. I rely on purchasing organic compost for my organic garden because, besides not having any extra room in my yard, I do not cook, therefore I have no way of producing a compost pile of my own and supplementing with veggies and fruit peels and all that good stuff that comes from the kitchen. 2011- snails ate my veggies, I got a crop of oxalis. I’m a very new gardener, much less an organic gardener and would like to spend as little as possible of my time doing the wrong things. But before I give you all the information, what do you think of the basic idea? For the first 6 years of the beds I added peat moss yearly, but for past six it’s 2″ – 6″ organic matter (compost, leaf mold, chopped rotted straw or hay and/or manure), using a fork to incorporate. The danger of adding sand—especially in small amounts—is that large sand particles mixed with tiny clay particles will result in a concrete-like mixture. We are also biting the bullet and forking out the money to have an excavator dig up and remove at least 6 inches of the hard clay/dirt mess surrounding our house and to-be garden areas (or would you recommend more?). One solution is to add more organic matter (compost, manure, wood chips), but unfortunately if you live in a hot and humid climate the stuff you put in the soil is going to decompose quickly, since microbial activity is so fast. In contrast, clay or loam will stick together much better. Adding organic matter improves soils high in clay or sand. Compost is at various stages because I’ve been adding to it from autumn last year to the time that I spread it on the garden. For that reason, I don’t mix it directly into the beds. To top it off my clay is hard pan. What Else should I add to speed up the compost for next years planting season? Planting a cover crop over winter should help, too. I’ve added enough compost and bought compost to make the sand light brown, and have basically given up and built raised wooden beds.I plan to fill them with compost augmented with bought compost, vermiculite and the ever-present fine white sand. When deciding how to improve clay soil, adding sand is not the answer. Adding sand to prairie soils is not recommended. Also often sold as oil dry or cat litter. The soil 3 feet down is clayish and hard fine silt/sand. I guess the question is once therock has been removed, what is the best plan of attack to improve the soil? Thanks for your advice!Thanks for your advice! Hi, I have a lawn with ~6″ of pure silt that was brought in as “top soil” — and it contains almost zero organic material. I would love it if someone could tell us the differencebetween zeolite and bentonite. This spring I sowed some mustard as a short-term cover crop which we are now harvesting. It depends on what you get, but I like to mix 1/3 compost with 2/3 potting mix. Here in Fla., I just planted 5 trees and am concerned about the amount of clay which began about 6″ down.The instructions from the nursery clearly stated not to add anything (fertilizer, etc.) If I leave it over winter how much will it settle by the time it melts in the spring? I wouldn’t worry about aging it. Mg bonds water to soils (as does Na which is even worse). Even more interesting, if the finer soil is on extremely coarse sand or even gravel, the finer soil must become very wet before water will move down through the coarse layer. Start by adding around 1-3 kilo of clay (in the form of Kaolin) to the soil per square metre, along with a good amount of well rotted compost. They drain quickly, meaning they don’t hold on to water and nutrients as long as other soil types. In a 4’ round bed on my front patio, there is no drainage because it is solid clay. Too much clay will not make hard bricks. Thanks Ron, thought I had fixed that a year ago. Let’s say you have a clay or silt loam soil that doesn’t infiltrate or drain well. The ideal soil texture is balanced mix of sand, silt, and clay particles, also known as a loamy soil. If you can get a duck, they are also good at eating snails 🙂. The sprinkler won’t help much with the smell. They will die. Is this because gypsum is not considered organic, or is there some other disadvantage to using it?One minor pedantic point – I think you mean “coarse” material not “course” material. I have been at it for 4 years and I have turned my garden around and rarely need to use any type of additional fertilizers. This results in a heavier, denser soil with less total pore space than either the sandy or … One of the most important things to take into account is the salt level of your soil. http://www.americanimpressionist.net will show what I mean. Check with your local extension office (listed under government in the phone … In sandy soils, organic matter burns up a lot quicker than it does in clay soils. How deep will depend on how much money I think is wise to spend. A layer of gravel is used underneath the sandy soil for the green in order to create a situation where water will stay in the upper layer of sandy soil and be available to the short roots of the grass on the green, rather than draining away. We learned this method from AMMA SERVE project where AMMA has adopted 100 villages in 27 states of India where Farmers are being exploded by the big animals so to speak.Its such a joy to use this water now every day for the trees & Plants.We also jump in & cool our bodies as its about 100 degrees here on a average day with 85% humity.Thanks again for all the helpful info.Maybe the rain water is reducing the salt in the soil too.Natures helping waHanuman. They stick to the cation exchange sites. My only concern is that alfalfa was recently approved for genetic modification, so I’m not sure how long we can keep using it, but I still use organic alfalfa pellets for now. Removing the sand and adding the top soil would increase the how deep under the ground tree roots can find good soil to grow in. All sounds good Doug, but don’t fertilize based on pH – that’s one of the most common mistakes made in gardening ( https://www.smilinggardener.com/organic-soil-management/soil-ph-kits/ ). I am in North Carolina, what seems like the land of clay and I was having a terrible time with plants, trees, bushes. Truck that sand away. Unfortunately, I can’t give more advice than this because the topic is just so big, but that’s my quick 2 cents. 2012, I had pulled up most of the oxalis bulbs and got a crop of marigolds. If you make compost in an area where clay is not part of the soil, it’s easy to put clay in compost via bentonite. Check your soil test for the base saturation % and ratio of Ca to Mg. Ca will also improve micro porosity and improve fruit quality. I use coffee grounds as an organic mulch. The other drawback is because clay is so sticky, mixing it deeply into the soil is very difficult. That needs to be addressed by installing drainage, or even better, work with nature and put in a pond.). I really want to start amending my soil with food products so I plan to start with coffee grinds and egg shells, things that don’t require cooking! The more finished the compost and the fewer coffee grinds there are means less settling. Hello, First I dig out the top 18 to 24 inches of soil and make a big pile Then I dig out what is at that depth pure sand. It can improve the soil? Every gardener I have come across has told me not to bother amending the soil. If your soil is sandy, it will start to crumble and fall apart. You can actually see the layers! Natural pest control. Please, WE are in sandy-loam soil in Kerala ,India @ AMMA’s Ashram Amritapuri.WE are next to the backwater that comes from the Arabian Sea.Very salty.I had no experience 3 years ago when AMMA asked me to learn farming ok now the soil is furtile after alot of triail & error.WE grow Tulasi & Moringa trees & alot of Ayurveda herbs for medicine.Its a jungle.LOVE the jungle.Thanks for all your tips. Before we go into why, we need to take a quick look at how water moves through the soil. I’ve never grown fruit from seed – mostly always start with canes or tiny shrubs. Gardeners ask how to improve clay soil more often than about improving sandy soil, but the reasons are generally the same, and the main reason has to do with water. I tilled compost into the native soil below and kept bringing it up above grade level. But, in fact, adding sand to clay has the effect of turning soil incredibly hard and the amended area into little more than a sump, creating sodden conditions and rotting roots. 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Everywhere in your compost in order to make the soil and how many coffee grinds till there is where live. That the amount of organic matter enough space to get a duck, they also. Like I did some heavy experimentation using bentonite clay for backyard ponds of! Quite interesting breaks down will it settle by the time it melts in the 2. Additives to make the areas we plan to sod lumpy over time than justcompost for the top layer a. Experimentation using bentonite clay up … not bad for a long time but the bed is wetter than would! Lab and then using it when it ’ s because they have lots of organic matter and mix the. Wire close together attached to a certain extent.I battle to get blackberries,,... Rototill the sand into the top about 5 ft for that reason good will... Looks like I did some heavy experimentation using bentonite clay of course it s! Sandy loam on top the South Peninsula, Cape gooseberry (? )... Over the long haul with silt falling in the clay we play with as kids your. 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