Growing a vegetable garden in clay soil

Without any intervention, clay soil can become hard as rock in the summer and extremely sticky in the winter. How to recognize clay soil? Clay soils are heavy, compact, and slow to warm up. Clay swells when wet and shrinks when the weather is dry. In soil where it is present in large proportions, cracks may appear in the event of drought. To determine if a soil is predominantly clay, you can do the ring test: after moistening a handful of soil, roll it and try to make a ring. If you succeed without any difficulty, the soil is predominantly clay. Another method: look around you! An abundance of field thistles, bindweed, plantains, and dandelions suggests a rather clayey soil. What are the characteristics of clayey soil? Clayey soils contain very fine clay particles, much finer than grains of sand. Few spaces are left between the particles, which gives a very compact structure and explains the slow movement of water. The water-holding capacity of clayey soils makes them a very good substrate for plants that fear drying out. Clay plays an essential role in plant nutrition. It retains mineral elements such as potassium and magnesium, making them available to plants. Enriched with minerals, fruits and vegetables are then tastier! But cultivating clayey soil is a real challenge! When the weather becomes dry, the clay contracts and transforms into very hard soil, making germination, root growth, and gardening difficult. When rainfall is abundant, water stagnation threatens roots with asphyxiation. At the end of winter, clay soils have difficulty warming up, so crops are later and are susceptible to frost for longer. How to grow in clay soil? Adding organic matter stimulates the activity of microorganisms and encourages earthworms. These soil workers are essential to the garden. They help oxygenate the soil and incorporate compost. Soil improvers are particularly effective at aerating clay soils. Their powerful roots break up the soil and bring nutrients to the surface. White clover, rye, and phacelia are as effective, if not more effective, than the gardener! Mulch! The effects of mulching on clay soils are extremely beneficial. The main difficulty with growing crops in clay soils is compactness. To prevent the soil from becoming too dense, dry and cracks appearing, cover the crops with a thick layer of organic mulch. The thick mat will gradually decompose and incorporate, it will help to aerate the soil and cushion the fall of water drops which contribute to the compaction of the ground. Stop working your soil and learn to be patient: The more a clay soil is turned, the more it is destructured and the more quickly the organic matter is decomposed. The decomposition process must be done gradually and slowly. It is therefore preferable to place a layer of compost on the surface and let the little soil workers do their work. Advantage: the gardener will have less effort to make! The gardener can also choose to turn away from his soil. If the garden is small, it is possible to install raised beds (mounds, etc.) thanks to an external supply of soil and compost. What to sow or plant in clay soil? Root vegetables will not thrive in soil that is too suffocating, but they still adapt very well to clay soil. Thus, carrots grown in this type of soil have a more pronounced flavor than those grown in sandy soil! Lettuce, chicory, leeks, leeks, beans, peas, spinach, mint, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and other crops with superficial or shallow roots benefit from the ability of clay soil to retain water. The roots of cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, sorrel, rhubarb, and artichokes need strong anchoring, so clay soil is an ideal substrate for their growth. On the flower side, we find geranium, hosta, anemones, coreopsis, aster ... Concerning soil improvers it is possible to sow a winter soil improver mix, white clover, crimson clover, Cerdagne vetch, protein peas or even spring vetch. Remember to wait until the soil has warmed up sufficiently before sowing and planting!