On Hard Clay, You Can Grow Vegetables
The practice of vegetable gardening may be one of the most gratifying experiences one can have in one's life. Eating your own fresh veggies, plucked right from the plant or straight from the ground with the natural flavor still intact, beats eating store-bought produce hands down every time.
My childhood home was on the slopes of One Tree Hill, an extinct volcano in Auckland, New Zealand, and gardening there was as simple as tossing some seeds into the ground, brushing it over with dirt, and returning to reap the crop. Because of the abundant rainfall, there was no need to irrigate; a little pest management to keep the snails at bay and a little weeding were all that was required.
What a culture shock it was to arrive on the Gold Coast in Queensland and try to establish a vegetable garden. With little or no top soil, the soil is poor and solid clay, with a rock not far below and little or no organic matter.
Clay is one of the most challenging growing media to work with when it comes to plant propagation. The specific combination is so fine that oxygen and water have a difficult time reaching to the roots of any plant in this environment. During the dry season, it is as hard as concrete, and during the rainy season, it is soggy. If you don't do anything extra, you'll be fortunate if you get any weeds to grow at all.
As you can see in the image above, success is possible, but it will take effort to accomplish it.
A maddock was used to break up the clay and break it down into tiny pieces in order to prepare the garden. It is really preferable to do this while the clay is dry rather than when it is saturated with water. It just becomes heavier when moist and adheres to the maddock. Obviously, this is exhausting and back-breaking labor. But start with a tiny patch and work your way up to a larger one after some rest. To finish the vegetable patch, set aside many days; gardening is intended to assist in developing muscles rather than to deplete them. Several rocks were struck while doing this job. Nevertheless, the majority of the rocks on the Gold Coast shatter when struck and break into tiny pieces. However, fragments smaller than half the size of your hand were left in on the recommendation of gardening guides, despite the fact that the majority of them were removed. Why? Some believe that tiny rocks improve drainage and enrich the soil by introducing minerals into the soil over time. Leave them in the soil as long as they don't make up more than 5 percent to 10 percent of the total soil volume. Eventually, a foundation for the patch was established.
Clay breakers purchased from a local shop were used to soften and break up the clay even further. They are easily obtained from your local gardening or hardware shop and are added to water before being sprayed on the garden. However, they function best when used over a period of time.
Gypsum was added after that. As with the clay, this comes in big bags that are simple to spread out by hand and incorporate into the clay, which will also assist to "relax" the clay more.
Some may argue that it is unnecessary to purchase a large quantity of topsoil and just throw it in. For a variety of reasons, the first of which is that I have yet to locate a reliable supplier of dirt in Queensland. A little amount of organic material is mixed in with the sand, just enough to darken the sand, which is provided by most. Because it is far too fine, the sand really has poor drainage properties. Some people believe that adding sand to clay soil would benefit it. However, I think you are wasting your effort until the sand is fine to tiny pebbles in texture. Sand that is excessively fine behaves in the same way as clay soil; it repels brief periods of rain or irrigation and gets saturated during a tropical downpour or extensive irrigation, and it becomes waterlogged after prolonged irrigation. The second reason I don't just purchase topsoil is because if the topsoil isn't mixed in with and connected to the subsoil, it will just wash away and become useless.
It is necessary to incorporate organic matter into the clay soil in order to bring it up to grade. Top soil that is high in quality is comprised of plant and animal components that have decomposed or are in the process of decomposing. Compost produced from shredded leaves, wood shavings, grass clippings, and vegetable/food waste is beneficial to the environment. However, straw and chicken manure were the most effective materials I had on hand for my garden. A large amount of nitrogen-rich stuff was generated by a pen of twenty hens. Approximately every three months, the coup was cleaned out, with the straw emitting a strong ammonia odor. If you use straw in your garden, the scent will soon disappear and the straw and its 'added' components will swiftly decompose, becoming part of the soil. There is nothing better to use as a soil amendment, in my opinion. If you need to add something else to your soil to quickly create topsoil and can't wait for compost or don't have chickens, I recommend products such as worm castings or 6 in one products (which include blood and bone, fish compost, and other ingredients). These products are available in 20kg or larger bags and cost between $5 and $15 per bag. Several of these, or if your budget allows, 10-20 of them, will make a significant difference in soil conditioning.
Now that the garden has been prepared, it is time to plant. Sweet corn, snow peas, peas, beans, garlic, tomatoes, pumpkins, potatoes, beatroot, lettuce, cabbage, and a variety of other vegetables were produced in such abundance in the garden shown above that we had more than enough to eat. A modest vegetable patch with excellent soil and a well-thought-out design may make a significant contribution to your diet.
Unfortunately, this garden is no longer in existence since my family and I have moved away from my parents' lifestyle block. The fact that this little section required twice as much mowing as the rest of the lawn is testimony to the quality of the soil and the effort that was put into it. The grass was of superior quality, was healthy, was green, and grew more quickly since there was more water in the soil. The truth about hard clay soils in Queensland and proving to the world that if the work is put in, the rewards will last for years and even decades. In Australia, poor soil is just an excuse for being inactive. Yes, we do have drought circumstances from time to time. However, if we prepare the soil properly, we will need less water. Wonderful outcomes may be reached if we cooperate with our surroundings, holding water back in times of plenty and shaping the environment in the right way.
Poor soil should not be a hindrance; rather, it should be seen as a challenge.
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On Hard Clay, You Can Grow Vegetables