Urrgh...water logged clay beds - what do I do with all the plants I've just bought?

[Iamtheoneinten]

I'm a complete novice gardener. But I've got a huge garden and so I try my best, I'm sort of the slash and burn type and I also make a lot of mistakes, that can usually (but not always) be corrected by moving a plant somewhere else etc. So I don't feel I usually do badly. I might have made an expensive error now though.....

I'm in the, very much not, sunny South East that has had almost constant rain for what feels like forever. Clay soil as is the norm here. Our, south facing, back garden is - I thought - very soggy. I didn't realise quite how bad it was until today when I've gone out to plant. It's utterly water logged! Even a smallish, shallowish, hole is filling with water as soon as it's dug. I should have checked it before buying, but I didn't.
And now I have a lot, and I mean a lot, of plants I have just bought and I'm not sure what to do for the best.

I have a lot of Dahlia bulbs that I won't attempt to plant out, I'm assuming the best thing is to plant in to pots for now and move on later when the rain has dissipated a little (and frosts aren't likely). Or should I keep them, unplanted, in the shed for a while, and plant straight out when the conditions improve? How long can I leave them, if so?

But what about all of the plants in pots? Huge selection, including Brunnera, Clematis, Kniphofia, Geums, Lupins, early Lavender, Alliums, Delphiniums, Silene, Foxgloves, Pulmonaria...and others. I do have an enormous compost heap ready for use, that was liberated from a huge unmanageable pile that must have been cooking for at least ten years - nice and crumbly. So should I dig holes and fill with the crumbly compost and plant now. Or should I leave them in the pots and keep watering them and hope the rain and water logging subsides within the next week or so?

Hoping someone with more knowledge can help me out with some advice before I waste all the money I've spent on the plants making an error.

I have loads of plants I've bought over the autumn & winter sitting in pots on my patio. We've have clay soil & it's still super wet so I'm waiting a few weeks before planting everything out.
Can't advise on Dahlias though - don't have any.

Don,t plant your pots in water filled holes. Clay soil takes a while to drain, and the roots will drown. Just keep them fed and watered, there is still plenty time for planting out and they won't come to any harm. The soil,really needs to dry out and warm up a bit. Then I would dig in some of the compost, plant them, and spread the rest of the compost around them as a mulch, and the worms will take it down. But don't rush it.
don't know about the dahlias, never grown them. This weather is a nightmare. Your garden sounds as if it will be lovely when summer finally comes.

I'm in exactly the same position! Huge garden in the south east, heavy clay soil, incredibly waterlogged for about half the year. I'm also a relative novice - I only started gardening about 7 years ago, and so I'm still learning as I go.

The advice I have had is: do your best to improve the soil by applying well rotted composted matter, e.g. compost or manure, consider ways to improve drainage (e.g. digging a soakaway or putting in French drains - both too much cost/effort for me at the moment!), and (this is the big one) try to buy plants that can tolerate wet soil for at least part of the year. I'd be happy to report back on some of the ones that are thriving in my garden, as well as some of the ones that have died (if I can remember).

If your garden is anything like mine, it will get much much easier over the next month as the ground warms up. I'd say you are probably ok to plant out most things now-ish, but it wouldn't hurt to wait a few weeks. Your plants should be fine for the rest of the year, but might die off over the winter as their roots don't get a chance to die out.

My gardening is more focussed on shrubs than perennials like those you have mentioned, so I can't be much help there. I do have the occasional dahlia and delphinium - sometimes they survive the winter when the ground is really soggy, sometimes they don't. It's trial and error really.

OK, that's great, thank you. So I think I'll leave in pots ad water/feed. I just wasn't sure if the answer was going to be - get them out of the pots asap! And I'll concentrate on using the huge compost pile to lay on/dig in to the beds instead, until the weather improves a bit.

Despite my lack of knowledge, I have to say, most things I have planted do pretty well, but it's never been this awfully water logged before (since I've lived here anyway) and they're all established so I guess they can cope. I assumed the new delicate ones wouldn't, so I'll take the advice and get improving the soil first. Fingers crossed!

Your garden sounds as if it will be lovely when summer finally comes

Aww thank you - I blimming hope so!!

Yep leave in containers. We've just bought a willow tree for the boggiest part of the garden. Partly for shade, partly to dry out the bogginess

Is that safe to have in a garden? My parents had one and it caused subsidence.

Every gardener acquires a corner filled with plants in pots waiting to be planted out. Sometimes plants linger in there for years. That’s the great thing about container grown plants, which were very much a new thing when I started gardening

if you buy bare rooted plants and can’t plant them immediately, you have to “heel them in” - use a spade to open a slit in the ground, tuck the plant in, then firm the ground down with your heel.

When you come to plant, I’d hesitate about using compost. What you don’t want is a permeable compost filled hole in your clay, else all the water will drain into that. Maybe mix a little bit in, then put a mulch over the top.

That depends on a) how far it is from a building b) whether you are on “shrinkable clay” c) how big a tree. My neighbour has a weeping willow - I’m not even slightly concerned.

Another alternative to help counter the clay problem is to build raised beds straight on top of the ground and plant into those. The one good thing about clay soil is that it is fertile, and if plants aren't waterlogged in the raised part, they can send tap roots down into the clay when they are ready.

It might also be worth investigating whether a soakaway would be beneficial.

Dig as much compost, manure and grit in as you can get your hands on!

Also SE UK here, London clay it's called, although we are 70 miles away from London
Our garden is pretty big,200 ft,north east facing, but because of the size and the fact it's not overlooked,we get a lot of sun. One side border,by our bungalow is in permanent shade, awful to try and weed,DH dug down about a ft (then came across the gas pipe,dug out the whole bed, replaced it with a ton of topsoil.weve done the same with a bed for rhododendrons, raised beds are the way to go. We have added a lot of organic matter, home made compost. Plants like alliums, tulips that like free draining soil,are only grown in pots. I wouldn't risk dahlias, until the end of may. We leave some in our front facing free draining, sloping border
.I would wait until the end of may, before planting out.

@Hyperion100 is correct.

I'm assuming you're from my neck of the woods ( Kent.)

Every time I put a plant or shrub in the garden , I put some sharp sand /grit in as well as some leaf mould or other organic matter.

Over time the clay soil improves.

I've got a collection of plants and shrubs that I've overwintered but it's still a bit early to plant out.

The only real problem we have is slugs and snails ( can't grow various plants due to this as we are fighting a losing battle with the blighters)

Late last autumn we sprinkled some clay breaker granules which are activated by frosts.
We then mulched with small bark.
Looking forward to see if has an impact.
So fed up of cracked borders and lawn which are impossible to dig holes in.

We dug in tons of sand in one house we owned. That did help. Another we dug up a channel in the lawn and laid down a holey pipe over a gravel base. That also helped.

What you don’t want is a permeable compost filled hole in your clay, else all the water will drain into that

Good point, I’ll dig in a lot of organic matter throughout the beds rather than just fill the hole with it. I’d love raised beds but the garden is absolutely enormous and it would cost a fortune. Maybe I’ll start off a couple nearer to the house first, ready for next year.

If you look up online,it says don't add sand to clay soil,you will make concrete.

It took me 5 years to significantly improve the soil in my garden: it still tends towards clay but after forking in sand, straw, compost, mulch and loam over the years, provided I add something to loosen it each year it does pretty well.
Buy a couple of tons of river sand and fork it through the top 8 inches first. It's tiring work but will allow you to plant this year. Then next year work on the nutrients; compost or loam.
Good luck! If I'd known how much effort a clay garden would be I'd have gravelled in the beginning!

They'll be fine waiting in pots. If your garden soil is heavy clay don't expect the lavender to last long or do well, it likes dry well-drained soil, dig in plenty of grit when you plant but it hates wet feet in winter.

😂 I’ll just use the organic stuff then!

I can’t help on the clay soil but on the leaving in pots front I dug up loads of plants early in 2022 and have carted them around with me for 2 house moves and am gradually getting them into my new garden which I think will take another year or so.

If you have a greenhouse you can start the dahlias in pots now covering lightly with compost. Once they start shooting you can cut some new shoots off once they reach about 3 inches - ideally with a small bit of tuber. Put new shoots into compost. They will flop and look sad then recover and root pretty quickly and you will have more plants to go out later this year.

I also start off new dahlias in pots,I don't assume you have a greenhouse. How big is the garden?

We have very heavy clay soil here and the added bonus of it being a new-build house, so nice and compacted 😩

I've found clay breaker to be amazing - it takes a couple of years for it to really feel like a normal garden but it does work.
For my beds and planting areas, because the soil was so hard to dig, I went for no-dig beds. Before putting the cardboard down, I scalped the grass and sprinkled clay breaker all over the area, then the cardboard, compost and strulch/manure/ whatever else I could get my hands on. Left it to settle in until the cardboard had rotted and now have soft, diggable but still nutritious soil.

Your plants will be fine for now in pots, it's worth getting your soil into good condition as it'll save you so much work further down the line!

But over the whole bed not just in the planting hole

On my very clay soil I used spent mushroom compost as could get very cheaply and delivered in bulk... also got a nice crop of mushrooms.

If it is an annual drainage problem or all year round...then raised beds are the way to go.

I am not sure why people are recommending feeding your new plants. They will be in good compost possibly with slow release fertiliser. They will be fine in pots until you are ready to plant.
I garden on clay and it is very nutrient rich. I only spread fish blood and bone around once a year in early march.