10 plants that do well in heavy clay soil (lawn, growing, fertilizer)
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The soil I had to deal with in Georgia for 30+ years of gardening was horrible clay soil and what we have now in N.C. is not much better. I always have done well especially with daylilies(once I got them away from deer) and I've found it better to deal with what you have instead of constantly trying to change the soil. This is a simple list of a few plants which like clay soil. There are others.
Every year I add in organic manner (my own compost) and store-bought amendments, and every year the soil improves.
After a number of years, I have nice light soil.
Also I use raise beds.
I read flowering crab apple trees tolerate clay soil well. Not sure if they're grown in your southern location. I agree with adding organic matter every year. Don't even think about adding sand- it doesn't work.
Actually we do grow crab apples here in NC as well as GA.
For a garden or beds it is recommended to add amendments and the right kind of sand will help. But the thinking now is not to amend clay soil when planting trees or shrubs cause the roots will just go round and round in their comfortable amended soil and soon the plant is root bound.
When I was getting my horticulture degree we had to go out to the fields and plant trees and shrubs in amended soil and right side by side in unamended soil (Oklahoma with terrible clay soil). Then two years later we had to dig them up and measure roots. It was remarkable the difference. The unamended soil let the roots really spread more than the amended. And for the things which had been in the ground 3 or 4 years it was interesting to see how much of a difference.
When I lived in San Jose, the only time you could work the soil was when it was raining because the clay got so hard. I used to plant by digging a hole, throwing in a handful of peat moss and watering. Some of the plants that thrived were strawberries, corn, geraniums, clump bamboo, tomatoes!!!!!, orchids, daisies, and snapdragons.
I got 6 sad little cherry tomato plants in a container at Kmart and gave 2 away before I brought them home. I dug holes in the ground and planted the others, one each at the corners of a cleared plot of ground about ten feet square. I didn't know - really still don't - much about growing things. I know I didn't know enough to use tomato cages. But those tomatoes took off like a rocket to where I thought they were gonna come into the house and ask for supper. I had tons of them! The strawberries were just as ferocious.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I love clay soil.
We are in Zone 6 and get rain (31"/yr) and snow (70"-82"/year). The perennials and trees hibernate during the Winter. We get a lot of rain in the Spring and Fall and during the Winter as well. With trees/shrubs, I water the wells of the newer trees (<10 years old) religiously (less on the 10-15 year olds and not at all on the older trees) and add compost every other year. The combo enables the roots to go down vertically. We have crab apples, snow crab apple, ornamental maple, maple, apple trees, plum, pie cherry, flowering cherry, serviceberries; lilacs and a seven sons. I think the natural grain and in the well must promote root depth.
With plants, We mix fertilizer in with the clay to a depth of at 12-15" with the hope that over time, soil becomes healthier. So far so good. We also have a lot of bulb flowers, which I think helps break up that clay. We have blueberries, rhododendron, wisteria, honeysuckle, blackberries, tulips, day lilies, lilies, daffodils, columbine, hollyhocks, peonies, hydrangea, and then a few others. Water every other day. Once a day in the early a.m. Of those I planted, I dug extra deep holes and replaced a lot of clay with good soil. I think the healthier the early establishment the better with clay.
In Zone 6, options are limited. There is a late Spring feed of fertilizer. Then one early, mid and late summer pruning/weeding. Then in late Fall, a big pruning and weeding. Then by late October, mulch and deadhead and then nothing until April.
I used to water like crazy over the summer, but cut back significantly this year --seemed to work great for plants and trees. As the surface clay hardens, the roots grow toward the water. Would be a killer if the roots don;t get established.
Where I have had the most frustration was with the lawn. We placed the turf directly on the clay. Bad move. I should have forked out the $$ and removed maybe 6''-12" of clay, added a lot of gypsum and organic matter and then added good top soil before putting down the turf. 4 years in the grass roots are so darn shallow (no penetration). If the ground is worked hard before the snows come, it takes the shape of that hardening (e.g. moose tracks, boot prints). Then there is the heaving and thawing. By Spring, the lawn needs to get rolled. Me no like. In plant/flower beds, you can get rid of a lot of clay at least for early root growth.
In our clay yard (clay/shale - Ohio) I've also found that daylillies do wonderful. Also - many magnolias (we have Jane/Alexander/Butterflies/Large Leaf and Grandiflora - Bracken's Brown varieties), many panicled hydrangeas (tardiva/pinky winky) as well as some macrophylla (various versions). 4 crab apples (doing very well) as well as a Japanese Lilac (tree form -Ivory silk is variety I believe). Shrub lilacs doing all right, but not as well as prior less-clay environment in Michigan.
Interestingly, foxglove dies every time I plant it (this summer was the 3rd try) so I'm going to have to give up on that now.
Our winter-hardy bulbs do well for Spring color (6th year for original tulips/daffodils)
I've found a decent range of things that I can grow, the pain comes in doing the actual digging/planting labor -- its so much more time consuming/awful than if it were in "normal" soil.
Things generally do well in clay soil: look around you, there are plenty of trees, grass,weeds and just about anything else which will grow in "soil/dirt".
The problem is getting it to the point where you can "work" the ground enough to plant anything. That generally involves a HUGE amount of back breaking labor.....and not just the first year either. If you can establish raised beds, then go ahead and bite the bullet and purchase screened top soil to fill them. Over time this solution will seem "cheap" by comparison of dealing with rock hard, sticky when wet, heavy, inorganic appearing heavy clay soil.
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