Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark0820
Here is what I did to convert my clay garden.
1. I found some local horse stables on Craigslist that offer free aged horse manure. If it is a large stable, you can haul as many truck loads as you want, and some places will even load your truck for you. They desperately want to get rid of it.
2. I mixed in as much aged horse manure as I could.
3. Then when I planted tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, etc., I would dig a fairly deep (at least 12 ") hole and mix in a lot of the aged horse manure with the clay soil so it was loose. This allows your plants to be in the best possible soil short term while you improve the entire garden long term. It takes longer to plant this way, but it was well worth it.
4. For beans, peas, etc., I would dig a row instead of a hole and use the method from point 3 above.
It works well as long as you have the patience to put more effort into the planting process. Do this for 3 or 4 years, and you will be amazed at what your garden soil will become.
Also mulching with straw and adding other types of compost (grass clippings, composted leaves, veggie scraps, etc.) will speed up the process. I primarily focused on the horse manure because it was available in large quantities for free.
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This is pretty much what I did to my entire 5 acres in OK when I purchased a property with slick mud and not so much as a weed growing on it.
Within a year I had gorgeous, sturdy pasture, which I never even seeded, my planted trees were thriving and a nice, raised "berm" garden. I planted the trees on manure " berms, too.