Clay Breaker or just a tonne of grit?!

[BooseysMom]

Has anyone had any success with using Clay Breaker? We have solid clay soil which has been compacted down and had turf lain on top by builders as it's a new build garden. There's no soil and it's that solid a neighbour has already broken one fork trying to get through! I had a go at digging some beds and tried growing carrots & beets and we literally couldn't get them out! I have dug in sacks and sacks of compost but nothing is working as when it's wet it is waterlogged and when it dries out it's like cement! It's hideous! What am i to do?! I wish i could afford to get a landscaper in to remove the lot and start again but this is not an option. So should i try Clay Breaker or just dig in grit? Whatever i do is going to cost but it has to be affordable and both Clay Breaker and grit are expensive.
Any help greatly appreciated, thank you x

I feel your pain! We are on heavy clay too- but it has been worked well over a number of years prior to us being here. Yes to grit, maybe yes to clay braker. YES to removing some of the clay and replacing with top soil and/or compost.

If you can do more digging before frosts, you will find that helps break up the bigger lumps. Do you find many worms?

I would get a compost heap on the go now, if I were you!

Lime and organic matter.

@NotMaryWhitehouse... this is great, thank you. We have been producing compost for a couple of years but i find it's nowhere enough. Maybe as you say we're going to have to actually remove some of the clay and buy in top soil. Whilst attempting to dig a corner of around 4ft in size, i did find about 5 worms. God only knows how they've broken through it! They must be tough little things!

@Berthatydfil.. thank you. I think clay break is just lime based. Maybe rotted farmyard manure might help. They're selling bags for just a pound each up the road!

Yes to the manure!
Mine was much easier to get the fork in after a few days of rain.
Or, could you build up a raised bed, and fill that with manure and compost?

You need to break up the clay pan, and dig in the soil conditioner maybe a rotivator would help?

The lime will change the chemistry of the soil and organic matter changes the soil physically. Don’t underestimate how much you need, as it just seems to disappear into nothing.

Also start a compost heap and maybe a wormery for your non meat kitchen scraps, but those won’t be ready till next year.
Do you know anyone with horses who could let you have their muck heap?
My garden is very clay based and drains poorly so I feel your pain. Maybe you could also get some top soil, but unless the layer of clay is broken up under it, it won’t drain well. You can also buy worm kits that you can add direct to the soil.

@RainOrSun.. thank you . I have raised beds already but stupidly dug in the clay soil into the bed and added compost which hasn't helped break it up. I have green manure seeds to plant right about now so will see if that helps.

@Berthatydfil.. thank you. A rotivator is a great idea. I just need to make a final plan where the borders will be. Also a worm kit is another great idea..i hadn't thought of that! There are a few worms already ..i can't understand how they got in thru the clay!
We have a compost bin ..one of those plastic things from the council ...so that's going well. And my aunty has horses and would be happy for us to use the manure.
Thanks for the advice x

www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/garden-worms.html

Garden worms

My lawn is like this and several years I made a 1mx4m bed by digging up and removing the top layer and throwing bags of grit on and mixing it through. It still gets compact when very wet but not cement like and my alpines seem to like it.

There are a few worms already ..i can't understand how they got in thru the clay! Worms breed very quickly if the conditions are right. I wouldn't be inclined to buy - either you've got the conditions right, and your worms will rapidly multiply, or you haven't, in which case your bought worms won't survive long.

We have a compost bin ..one of those plastic things from the council That's not enough! I have three bins, each one a metre cubed.If you haven't got enough to feed it with, cardboard will rot down quite well too. Each year you need to spread compost about 6inches deep. So yes to your source of horse manure.

Don't despair - remember that loam is basically clay with a high humus content.

I rotivated mine, pulled out the biggest lumps of clay and chucked them away then stuck in loads of compost and kept adding more once a year in the autumn and now it's much better (3 years later). I've just dug out another bed so will have to do the same. One thing I would say is be careful of treading on the lawn too much in the first year after it's been laid as it compacts the soil underneath and stops the roots getting strong. In our garden you can see where we walked a lot in the 6 months after laying the lawn (we took down and added a new shed so there was lots of tramping back and forth) as the grass doesn't grow as much or as strongly as the other areas (stays short and not as dark green).

@Berthatydfil.. thank you for the worms link!

@MereDintofPandiculation.. thanks for the advice..i def haven't been digging in enough compost. My aim is to get a bigger better compost heap going or as you say, at least 2 more plastic ones although i worry about the plastic eventually breaking down into the compost.

@Titsywoo...thanks for the advice. We have been treading on the turf quite a bit in the first year. The problem is that we moved in late and it had grown so long that we had to butcher it to get it mown as we had a bad lawn mower and it never recovered. Now i want to get rid of most of it and have paths with stones, some grass and borders.

Have you looked at gypsum?

@BooseysMom I HATE mowing the lawn! If my OH agreed, I'd get rid of ours too

@SnowyLaMarr.. Gypsum?..what's that?!

@NotMaryWhitehouse.. yes exactly! I just get DH to do it. He has no choice seeing as i do all the cleaning all the time!
But i dream of a lovely cottage style garden with winding paths and long flowing grasses, etc

It's a soil ameliorant - improves structure of clay soils www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=620

Lime and gypsum are very similar compound containing calcium salts. I believe the calcium reacts with the clay particles in the soil, breaking the clay up. So I don’t think it’s that important which form is used I would get the cheapest.

Do you have an allotment federation near you ? They might be able to advise you on local soil problems and how best to improve it. They often buy large quantities of fertilisers and soil conditioners and they might sell you some.

From Wikipedia
Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O.[3] It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard/sidewalk chalk, and drywall.

Lime is a calcium-containing inorganic mineral composed primarily of oxides, and hydroxide, usually calcium oxide and/ or calcium hydroxide.

@SnowyLaMarr.. that's really useful thanks. Just read the RHS info on clay soils in the link and it's pretty thorough. I know what to do now! Thanks again

@Berthatydfil.. thank you for the gypsum info. I did put my name down on an allotment waiting list years ago but never heard back. I gave up on waiting but could try contacting them about soil fertilisers.
Thanks for your help.

I've had some sucess over the past few months with using vitax clay breaker and pelleted chicken manure in my front garden. Mulching has also made a big difference, so I can actually pull out weeds now rather than having to dig them out. If you have access to horse manure I would use that, but it does need to be well rotted first.

@Stefoscope.. thank you for the advice. I know somewhere that sells manure for £1 per bag but don't know how rotted it is.
I've just bought a box of Clay Breaker so that's my next job.

I realise this thread is a few months old but I wondered if anyone can give me some advice re clay breaker and manure?
If I were to sprinkle clay breaker in now (spring rather than autumn) and then add a 4” layer of rotted manure on top would that be beneficial to heavy clay soil or am I better just doing one or the other but not both?
Also is clay breaker dog friendly?