Re: Clay soil - Garden Lime? - Page 2

 

David (in Normandy) wrote:

There seems to be advice on the lime elsewhere.

I live on a clay area in Suffolk. Not as hot as Normandy, but possibly
considerably drier.  I have added a lot of horse manure to the plot, and a
fair amount of lime each year. I don't worry too much about mixing the two
if ncessary.  My copy of the Vegetable Expert has some advice on which crops
shouldn't be limed, which I usually follow.

If you can get horse much where the horses were bedded on straw, that's a
lot better than the more common wood-chip bedding.  And keep some of the
muck in a pile, mix with only a little soil, and grow the most massive no
maintenance squash, courgette, pumpkins, etc. next year.

If you're getting a lot of dry baking of soil, next year get some grass
clippings or other similar material to lay around your crops; it helps keep
moisture in the soil and stops the worst of the clay-pan forming.


- Nigel


--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/  

 



Have you checked your pH level?  Dolomite may be a better option
depending on your pH.  But given that you already have the lime.......