Cheap Fixes for Clay Soil

Clay soil is no fun to work with in the garden. It turns swampy during rainy weather and becomes barren and desert-like when it's dry, and very few plants can survive that kind of dramatic see-sawing of moisture levels. Amending your clay soil with store-bought sand or compost will alleviate the problem, but it can get expensive, especially if you have a large area to work with. Cheaper ways exist to fix your clay soil, although most of them will require a fairly significant time commitment.

Sheet Mulching

Sheet mulching, also known as composting in place or lasagna gardening, is an easy way to improve the drainage and fertility of heavy clay soil, and if you play your cards right it can be completely free. Cover the area where you'll be working with a single layer of corrugated cardboard or 2 to 6 layers of newspaper. Avoid glossy or color-printed paper and cardboard. Cover this with a layer of vegetable kitchen waste, like potato peelings, coffee grounds or carrot greens. Do not use animal products, like meat, bones or dairy. If you can't get enough kitchen waste from your own kitchen, ask a few local restaurants if they'd be willing to save their vegetable scraps for one day for you. Cover this with a layer of dry leaves or straw. If you have the materials for it, you can create several layers of kitchen waste and leaves. Keep the bed lightly moist. Prepare the bed this way in the autumn, and by the following spring the kitchen waste and leaves will have decomposed into rich compost. The cardboard or newspaper should be largely decomposed, too, and the moist conditions may have attracted earthworms , which will help aerate the soil underneath. Till the compost and decomposed paper into the existing soil, or you may plant directly into the compost. Adding kitchen waste and leaves every fall will increase your soil's fertility, and eventually you can build up raised beds filled with high quality soil that you made yourself.

Cover Crops

A cover crop planted in the fall will break up the thick clay with its strong, powerful roots, and when you till it under the following spring the plants will add valuable nitrogen to the soil. Some cover crops that can be grown in clay soil include crimson clover, fava beans and Austrian winter peas. To allow the cover crop time to decompose, wait two weeks after tilling to plant any vegetables or flowers.

Wildflowers

Even if you can't get your clay soil to support vegetables or berry bushes, you can still create a wildflower garden to attract birds and butterflies. Several native North American wildflowers and grasses are perfectly adapted to bust through dense clay soil. Flowers to consider for clay soil are various asters and goldenrods, blue or white false indigo, coneflowers, sunflowers, silphium, liatris and nodding pink onion. Good native grasses for clay soil are sideoats grama, big or little bluestem, prairie dropseed, Canada wild rye and switchgrass. Ask a local garden center or native plant nursery which native wildflowers and grasses are best for your climate.