Is there a long (but easy) way to improve clay soil?

I'm looking for suggestions on amending my clay soil. I suspect that the builders scraped away a good portion of the original topsoil when they cleared the woods that used to be here. Construction wrapped up 3 years ago, so my lot has about 3" of fairly decomposed soil over a layer of very compressed clay (thanks to the bulldozers and graders). My lawn's fine, but my flower beds need help. The only addition since construction was a 3" layer of shredded wood mulch a year ago. I want to amend the soil to loosen it up and make it easier to work, but there's one huge problem.

My legs are paralyzed so I'm in a wheelchair.

I live alone, so there's typically nobody here to mess with my yard but me. My arms are more than strong enough to maneuver my wheelchair through the lawn, and by popping a wheelie I can "beach" my chair part way into any flowerbed. As a result I can reach the first two or three feet of the bed and dig to my heart's content. Unfortunately my chair bogs down when I get all four wheels onto the mulch (even with mountain bike tires on the rear wheels ... I've tried it). For obvious reasons I can't operate a rototiller either. In some places the flower beds extend over 15 feet from the edge of the lawn to the wall of my house.

On the plus side, the homeowners' association pays a landscaping firm to add mulch to the beds every year or two. The landscapers are helpful guys, since I always coincidentally (*cough*) have a case of cold beer around every time they come through. If I were to have a waiting pile of mulch or topsoil or somesuch, they'd surely spread it for me. They won't till it or turn over the soil, but I have to take what I can get. Whatever gets spread onto the beds will have to naturally decompose and mix with what's already there. I'll be living here for several years yet, so I can afford to be patient as I wait for the soil to improve.

So if you were me, what would you have waiting in a pile when the landscapers arrive in the spring?

Update: Thanks, doccat5, but I'm a guy.

http://brainshavings.com/puddlepirate

I know the persuasive power of beer firsthand. I buy a case of something cheap like Coors or Bud for the landscapers, but always keep the good beer in my dedicated beer fridge.

This message was edited Dec 4, 2007 9:55 PM

This message was edited Dec 5, 2007 11:16 AM

If at all possible, compost.

If you can't get compost, any other organic matter is good too. This could be grass clippings, mulched leaves, wood chips, whatever you can get. It will eventually rot and compost and be incorporated into the soil. It's not a fast-acting solution, but a good long term one which doesn't have to cost a lot of money.

If you can get bagged leaves now, they can sit around until the landscaper comes along to mulch. Have him spread the leaves first, then top with the wood mulch.

Karen

PuddlePirate, I so admire and enterprising thoughtful woman. We all know the true way to a man's heart is through his beer.......LOL I would suggest you google lasanga compost gardening. I do believe you could do a lot of that yourself, starting right now. Would it be feasible to raise part of those beds so that you could more easily "work" them in your chair?
Please d-mail me. I need to get a better vision of your properties physical layout.
Btw, have you contacted the local extension office? This sounds like a great project for the Master Gardeners to earn volunteer hours. I'm sure some of them would work for beer too, at least I would.........LOL

kqcrna, I know you have the Biostack composting bin. Could Puddle Pirate handle it with a wheel chair, since she says she has good upper body strength? From what you describe, that stak could be set up where she could get to it from her chair to add material and flip it, so she'd have compost waiting to be spread.

I don't know doccat. It might be difficult to maneuver around a bin of any type in a wheelchair. I imagine a pile on the ground would be a lot easier. Could you have a compost pile PuddlePirate ? And I see lasagna gardening (sheet composting) as a better approach. I'm pretty able-bodied and sheet composting is certainly easier for me. Best part of that is no need to fork out and spread the finished compost as it's already in place. And I've had nothing but great results from this process.

I do think doccat's idea about exploring help from the Master Gardener program is a great suggestion. Heck, even a cub scout troop could throw stuff on a flower bed to rot. And PuddlePirate could no doubt even do that alone. The biggest problem might be hauling bags of material to the site in a wheelchair.

Karen

Hi PuddlePirate,

Have you ever heard of Strawbale gardening?

I stumbled across the strawbale gardening forum here at DG a few months ago, and am still very pleased I did!

Strawbale gardening is a very fast and effective solution to poor soil conditions, without digging, weeding, waiting numerous years...
It also makes gardening alot easier for those with physical challenges, no more bending over, crawling around on the ground, or manouvering your wheelchair into dangerous positions!!!

The basic Idea is this: Place bales in desired location, sprinkle with nitrogen rich fertiliser every few days and water daily, after just a few weeks bales have decomposed into a soiless growing medium for any annual flower or vegetable. Instant raised beds!

The bales last for one or two seasons, and can then be used as mulch or in lasagna beds. LOTS more information on the Strawbale Gardening Forum, as well as a helpful bunch of experienced bale gardeners. Hope to see you there soon!

This Picture belongs to Strawbaleman, I borrowed it to show you. My bale garden is still very young, as summer has only just begun here in NZ.

Best of luck with the landscaping men and the mulch (and the beer!) Happy gardening,
Lena

Hadn't thought about straw baling that's a great idea. If you can locate them in a area where you can get to them easily and not violate your HOA covenants. Not for nothing does DH call those "communist communities"....LOL

Hey Puddle - first off, I hope you are, indeed, a woman! If not, ah well. I was told once that I was one of the finer gentlemen around; guess it takes a woman to be a real gentleman? Anywho, I digress.

With your HOA CC&Rs, I really don't know how much you can get away with in terms of landscaping... I'm going to bring up the obvious, just in case you could actually do it, but ... I know they can be very restrictive.

... one of the easier ways to "do" good soil is not to dig down but to build up. In your situation, raised beds constructed of something thick and solid - rail road ties, brick, stone (things that HOA's don't usually have great problems with?) might be the way to go. I don't know how easy it would be for you to move from chair to side of bed and back, but that could determine the width of the beds as well; not making them any wider than you can reach across, even if it's just leaning over from a lowered arm.

Anywho, digging down can take years and has variable sucess. Building up isn't always cheap, especially with an HOA over your back, but in the long run I think it would give you much faster, much more workable results. Were you to do the raised beds, you could even incorporate Lena's ideas about the straw bales for the first year, lowering your initial costs.

Hope this is helpful, let us know what you think!

Would a HOA bound across the road and tell a wheelchair gardener cease and desist? Simon Legre has nothing on these guys!!!! All he did was threaten to throw poor motherless children out into the freezing night! My feeling is the best tool you have is your wheelchair and that crate of beer - the combination would probably get you license to make up your beds anyway you want.

15' beds are brillant - would you consider making some hard surface tracks into them (could be a design feature using something like concrete slabs with a gap between them) that would allow you to work throughout the beds. Then use a combination of bale and lasagne as the others have suggested. As the planting matures, the paths will mellow and largely be hidden by plants, yet continue to give you access.

I think the next things is to make sure that you get some very long handle tools. Buying second hand ones on e-bay and replacing the short handles with broom sticks should do it at a fairly cost efficient way. Is there any such thing as a trailer for a wheelchair? so you can cart tools, materials, and plants around with you.

And I think the idea of contacting Master Gardeners is brillant. If you could talk to a tutor about a long term plan you could probably get a steady flow of gardeners coming to you on a regular basis, particularly if you explain that you are working out designs for wheelchair access. I would start with talking about 2 distinct projects: one making and laying interesting concrete slabs (you can texture with loads of interesting things to give a better grip surface), and two: lasagne/bale beds. If that doesn't perk up some interest - then there really isn't a Father Christmas (oops, Santa Claus to you lot).

go for it Puddlepirate - I'll be watching with interest.

LOL, Laurie - I know it sounds bizarre, but the fact remains that people choose to buy into HOAs. Puddle Pirate will have to work within the parameters that s/he agreed to, or fight them, which is a lot more work than a raised bed, IMO.

But yeah, designing accessible gardens is a great thing.

Unless part of these beds/walkways are on common ground. At that point, the HOA is in violation of the ADA act and yes, she can take em on and win! Since that's limits her accessibility to the area, because of the wheelchair.

Thanks for all the great suggestions, folks. I'm reading through them and considering my options.

By the way, I'm a guy. Just sayin'. http://brainshavings.com/puddlepirate

All of the beds are on my property, but I'm not allowed to have a compost heap or a compost bin thanks to the HOA's rules. As for nosy/pushy HOA officers, they do indeed pounce on the slightest infractions. My wheelchair hasn't deterred the president from walking across the street from his house to mine (lucky me) to complain about my brother's "unsightly" motorcycle trailer. To add insult to injury, it happened during halftime of the OSU-Michigan game, and the dude showed up in a maize and blue jersey. He didn't take kindly to the scarlet and grey Teddy Ginn jersey I was wearing.

I can probably get away with having a pile behind the bushes until the landscapers come through in the spring, but I won't be able to maintain one indefinitely. I'll ask some of the local farmers if they have any old manure they'd be willing to part with. Grass clippings will be easy to get come springtime.

Do any of you have opinions about coir fiber mulch? http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2646350&cp=1254884.2116237&parentPage=family I can lift and carry quite a lot of weight, and my chair's tough enough to bear my 200 lbs and plenty more. I could probably shuttle blocks of coir fiber from my car to my beds all day long, provided the stuff's worth using in the first place.

The link below will take you to some pictures of my patio. Although the rock garden area won't get any mulch dumped on it, you can see some of the more typical beds in the other pictures. Raising them with railroad ties or bricks sounds doable. I especially like Laurie1's idea of concealing paths in the beds.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/akonsen/sets/72157603381083596/

I'll be contacting the OSU Extension Service for Lorain County. I had no idea they had a requirement to work a certain amount of volunteer hours. Hopefully their master gardener hasn't got high beer standards, since I really hate parting with Guinness.

This message was edited Dec 5, 2007 12:15 PM

Oops, sorry about that. Sounds like your not only living in a communist community, you living next to the grand pooba commie himself. LOL
In order to maintain your certification all Master Gardener agree to provide X number of volunteer hours each year and take additional class hours to stay current. Am not sure what the exact requirements are for your area, but all MG programs are backed by your land grant college, it's part of their charter. Something like this would be a god send for a new MG. In VA it's 50 hours for the 1st year. You might check your covenants before raising the beds, so you can use materials that fall under the guidelines. Won't that just p--s him off. Love the look of your patio and I can see maybe using some of the pavers turned sideways. A lot of the big box stores run great sales on this stuff. If you picked rough pavers that would leave some small opening you could add anything that does well in a rock garden! Wow the potential. I'm drooling already.
You also might check local scout troups, sometimes the guys going for eagle scout badges get involved in this kind of project.
I have friend who rides a Harley and their group sometimes "tours" around the country. Mostly old poops, but their about 50 of them. Would you like them to visit? LOL That would teach him to complain about a motorcycle trailer. LOL

Coir's great stuff, but I tend to think a little pricer than you want to fill your beds with. The straw that Lena suggested is probably the way to go - trust me, the bales are heavy enough. Just make sure you don't confuse it with hay or you'll have more unwanted seeds in your beds than you can shake a hoe at.

You probably already know this but paths covered with stabilized decomposed granite or even gravel that's been mashed down with one of those roller thingies will cut your costs tremendously. Unless you get a sharp depression in the path, they should also absorb rain pretty well, leaving a gritty surface instead of a slick one... unless your chair has bicycle tires, it's probably a consideration.

BTW, actually ... as a former Ann Arbor-ite, a dirt-loving, tree-hugging leftist (boo!) I would be chief Commie, okay? I demand my correct title.

Pagancat, I'm a dirt-loving, tree-hugging, right wing Neanderthal former Nature Conservancy member who loves the Buckeyes. So yeah, I'll be happy to call you the Chief Commie (it's ironic that my team wears scarlet, though).

Straw, not hay: check.

Doccat5, I'll definitely see what the local Master Gardener's volunteer requirements are, and I'll also check with the Cub Scout troop at my church to see if they can put me in touch with an Eagle Scout looking to break a sweat.

Actually, you might want to try the Master Gardener program yourself. Good way to meet more tree-huggers.

We like red, we just look better in blue!

Pagan cat, I be a tree hugger too, however, never in my wildest day would I dream of telling someone else what they can do on their own property, much less comment on visitors. These kind of plp do not bring out the best in my personality. Yeah, yeah, you should sign up, pirate! That would be so cool and it's a wonderful program. I just finished the classes in November and had a absolute ball with 30 other garden nutsos. It was great!

This message was edited Dec 5, 2007 1:36 PM

PuddlePirate: You now have lots of leads to follow.

Both the MG and Scout options sound like good ideas to explore. You might even find a teenager who'd not be allowed to partake in the beer (tho being a teenager never hampered me much!) but might be happy to make a couple of bucks helping out.

Your place is very pretty, but you all worship the wrong colors. Who's leading the AFC North? Oh, yeah, the it's black and gold. (I might live in Ohio, but when you grow up in Pittsburgh you become a lifetime Steeler fan. Maybe that explains the attraction to beer, too).

Karen

Dear PuddlePirate
It may be a long time in getting your beds the way you want but, I live in a neighborhood with a home owners association to. Here they call themselves an architectural review board but they are only your friendly neighborhood store clerk, fireman, etc. with nary an architectural degree between them of any kind. Some of them also enjoy the feeling of title a little to much as more arguments than solutions get done at the meetings. But here is a little long winded but very sneaky way to loosen that compacted dirt down to at least two feet without significantly raising your soil level. " Vertical Mulching". Just get yourself an electric drill. A contractors grade would be best, and go and find an auger used to loosen the soil around trees. Or used by sprinkler men , electricians etc. They are the same thing and are about two feet long and auger a hole about two inches in diameter. You also need some bagged compost or other suitable organic matter, some Perle lite, expanded shale "expensive" or some very small crushed stone, brick, or marble chips. I've even used very small pea gravel. Simply drill down about one hole every two feet for a tree around the drip line and radiating out. Or as many as you would care to do in a small area at a time. Believe me it is tedious but it really does loosen the soil to a greater depth than a tiller ever could. Next mix up some of the compost etc. with the stony material. About half and half. Then pour down some of the holes careful to pack it in. I use an old broom handle to get it to the bottom. In some of the holes just mix the soil and the compost and place back in the hole. If you can stand it and have the patience for it it works. I only do small areas at a time. But it gets around the you cant build anything without our approval first thing. Oh yeah be sure to contact a utility marking service first to ensure that you can avoid any utilities in your yard. I contract for a living and you wouldn't believe how shallow they will bury them at times. Just stay two feet away from either side as this is usually the locator's grey area where the line can fall in and they are legally covered. After a while worms and other varmints will actually tunnel down to the holes to feed and this helps to spread the compost around some. Not to mention all the free aeration you will get. The holes with the stone will stay open a good bit longer and will really help the drainage. This is also a good way to get water down into the root zones. You can also place a little fertilizer around the shrubs, trees , etc. It does take some work and patience but it puts a whooping on the hard pan that the contractors leave behind. I do it annually in small sections sort of rotating to the most important parts per year. And the augers are not hard to handle. They do all of the work for you. Good luck.

MUDCATSLIM, you wonderful sneaky guy! Ah, my kinda deal........just a little "glitch" in me personality. Nothing like telling me I can't do that.......evil grin That usually leads to and for my next trick...watch this, sucker!

We all must do what we must. American ingenuity blah say blah say. I love getting around the system also. This is not so sneaky but does put a thorn in the side of the just right. Also it definitely places you in the crazy neighbor category and maybe the noseys want come knocking. Just wait till they see me doing laps in my homemade aeration sandals that I am scheming to make. Yuck Yuck Yuck!

Oh wow! Send pictures....btw, would you be interested in a trip to the Botanical Gardens in Norfolk? There's a bunch of us trying to get something together for next year. dmail me :)

I was talking to my grandson this morning and he mentioned that as a graduation requirement every student has to put in somany hours of community service and they are not allowed to accept payment in any form.

Check with any teens in your area or call the office of the local high school. You may find several volunteers who are actively seeking ways to fulfill that requirement!

PuddlePirate, you need to check out the accessible gardening discussion. Several of the DG's in there are also in a wheelchair and maybe able to add more information. I know I found out about some great website with ergonomic gardening tools that are perfect for me. Old age and milage has taken it's toal and I was looking for one of those little roll about carts I could sit on. I can get down, but getting up is a problem, not everything wants to go vertical without a fight......grin

Mudcat, I do appreciate your enthusiasm for subverting the system - but I am wondering if there is a flaw in your plan, if I am following it correctly. My understanding is that you are digging out holes with an auger? That must mean that soil is coming up out of the holes to the surface area. Now if you are replacing what is being brought up with compost material, the soil that has been augered up has to lay on top - thus raising the surface.

In principle I think it is an interesting take on double digging, but if you are looking for a way of NOT raising the soil level of the finished bed, I think it may take a bit more thinking through.

HOAs-homeowners associations--yuck

Somebody needs to sit down and have a long time with these lawn Nazis. Some cantankerous gardeners have been able to convince their HOAs that their rules are eco-unfriendly and make for boring landscapes. I think Flyboy in Florida is one of those brave souls who fought city hall and won.

I vote for fixing your clay soil from the top down, lasagna-wise or compost-in-place or whatever you want to call it. Top off with some pine straw or other decorative mulch that is plentiful in your state. Add some biodiverse evergreen shrubs here and there to plant your flowers around.

The EPA has a nice site showing traditional vs. sustainable landscaping.
www.sustland.umn.edu/

The soil that comes out is minimal as you are only using a two inch auger. This does not "raise" the area any appreciable amount. Grass will grow over the area in no time and you cannot tell that the hole is there. It is definitely not as if you are digging and mixing by the shovel full. It is pretty much the same as a aeration machine running over the lawn. Only much more intense. Usually the dirt resembles night crawler or mole mounds. It does work though. Just takes a bit more time, and in that time you can think about what you would really like to plant there verses an impulse buy. I have done so much of that I usually end up given away plants that I really didn't like.

C'mon you guys - we all have strong feelings about HOAs, but remember that people have a choice as to where they buy their homes and some may have some very specific reasons for doing so - and I'm certain you don't want to have anyone feel bad because they made those choices, right?

I wouldn't want anyone to feel bad, and I just might consider buying in one if DH wouldn't kill me. He has rather er, strong feelings on the subject. LOL
Actually our first experience with the "wonder" of an HOA was thru friends. These guys even picked out the color you could use for your curbside trash can. Get out! My friend was getting grief because her "green" didn't match everybody elses green. I was there when the HOA pres was having her little fit, and I thinking to myself, I believe this woman is a total nut case and maybe dangerous. She was so serious.........whew. Not enough to do I think.

But, no matter how wild it seems to some of us, there are those who have their reasons and the disparaging comments can get old. No one wants to be seen as a total dingbat for buying into one - and I think I'm the only one who enjoys being called a commie. Some folks call it an insult.

Yeah, but I think we all figured out you're a little strange, Pagancat, even for a commie..........LOL Wanna help me name leaf bags? evil grin

>smile<
...

Puddle, we all feel your HOA pain. That doesn't sound quite right, but you know what I mean. They're kind of like bath water--not so hot once you get into them.

As for getting into your beds to weed and work, how about keeping some big pieces of cardboard that you can throw down where you want to pop a wheelie in soft soil? I use lots of cardboard (and newspaper, a la lasagna) all over the place. For my blueberry orchard, I cut big circles of heavy cardboard to put around each plant and add pine straw on top. Looks good and helps keep out the blackberry briars that grow fast here in the winter. The local tractor dealer/hardware store has really big boxes that they let me take off their hands. Cutting them is not so easy--have to use a utility knife.

Do the neat freaks in your hood put bags of leaves out for pickup? I have a cheapo shredder that grinds up small branches and leaves into nice mulch.

I'm glad I live in the sticks. A nice but nosey lady neighbor used to ask me if my lawnmower was broken and offered to lend me hers. I told her I like the American prairie look.

Home owners do have a place as in not having a sea of junk or partially running cars parked on the side of the road. My mother in law sold her old place on Ty-bee Island and the current owners decided to go with a multi colored carnival in shades of lavender,green,yellow, and red. It looks like one of the old Victorian painted ladies were the painters took an acid break and decided to let the Beatles govern what paint scheme went were. The home owners bunch in my neighborhood said icksnay to my raised blue stone island bed in the front till I finished it. Then they said oh, and I noticed that a few more island beds popped up. They said what is he up to now as I gleefully ignored and built my raised field stone planter and flagstone walkway down the side of my house. I am now considering tearing down my landscape timbered bed and redoing it in cobble stones that will match the blue stone. " Yeah I know bragging but, man those projects were a lot of work" I still cant put together a really good functional and aesthetically pleasing planting though. The only thing that doesn't look to bad is the stone work itself. I also just finished putting in a pretty large October Glory Maple up front. I looked like a goof with about fifteen foot of tree sticking out the back of my truck. Man the neighbors certainly cast glances that day. But the instructions did say to make a hole four times the root ball. Trouble was that the root ball was two feet across. I hope the tree makes it though. Some homeowners our a little easier than others. I find that I have to keep on plugging and actually finish the projects. Now if I could just learn what lives in good old Chesapeake and what would look great next to what without outgrowing its place. Maybe I should do the native plant thing?

Hey puddle,
I too had the same problem soil you do only throw alot of rocks in it. It takes time but I just like to dig and get dirty so I hand dug out the rocks and most of the clay soil and mixed in my worm castings slowly but surely. I got tired of buying and hauling bags of topsoil and compost so now my worms do all that for me and my yard has thanked me. I read that you can't have a compost bin but if your looking for another hobby worm bins are small and compact and what they produce is gold for your yard and you would have easy access to it. Good Luck!

Yo PuddlePirate
Just thought to give you a shout out. I am ex navy, Gas Turbine Tech. My younger brother is and ex -Navy turned Coastie and my other brother is an ex- Navy. My dad is an ex- Navy. The Navy or some sort of sea service runs way back. Did you ever do the Caribbean? I didn't always like the watches but do miss the sea some. Any way good to hear about the exploits of ex sailors. Always an interesting person behind the uniform. Lots of stories. Good luck with the gardening.

I just knew it! I use to work for both NAVAIR AND NAVSUP!! I love sailors, evil grin.........maybe that's why I married a dogface? LOL

Good going, Mudcat. I hope your maple lives long and prospers. Natives can't be beat--it's fun learning what used to grow in your area before people bulldozed the good stuff to make room for foreign plants like lawn grass. You probably have native plant societies in your state that would be dee-lighted to suggest plants for your mighty stone beds.

Doccat5, what's a HOA covenants and CC&Rs? Do you have to wear dark cloaks and hoods? Is it code for bad words?
Carol

Carol, those are Home Owner Associations list of does and donts. And does depend on who is on the power trip as to how big a pain they can be. Some are a bit psyco and other's are kinda laid back as long as you don't paint your house candy stripe or something like that.
I cannot envision living in one of these subdivision myself, but I have friends who do. And I have friends who moved rather than put up with the crap.
We have a local lawsuit going on right now, over a HOA wanting a man to change the size of the American flag he was flying in his yard. He's a Nam vet and this was a super size flag, however, he's won the last 2 go rounds, the HOA lost the appeal as well. We have friends in that CC (communist community) so it just gets more interesting, since others living there are getting pretty sick of the current elected officers behaviour and the cost. Looks like there may be new people as officers come election. Just stuff like that.
I think they were originally designed to do what MUDCATSLIM mentioned and that's to keep the junker look down, but got carried away.