Plants, hints and tips for clay soils

The standard recommendations for improving clay soils are to try to improve your drainage, to add as much organic stuff (mulch, compost, manure, clippings etc) as possible, to add lime or calcium with care, and to dig in autumn. All these ideas are worthwhile – but not of them permanently and consistently change the nature of clay soil.

So instead, you can start to think about what does well on clay and focus on growing that instead.  As an example, roses grow best on heavy clay soils with lots of organic matter helping to keep the surface roots moist and wet – so you can have a wonderful rose garden even if you can’t grow the camellias you’ve always hankered after.  Although, of course, if there’s one plant you’re determined to grow and it doesn’t like your soil, you can always invest in a good-sized container and fill it with the kind of growing medium your desired plant will thrive in.

Plants that love clay include many shrubs that, once they’ve got their roots down and settled, will give you not just years of beauty but decades of flower, fruit and winter form.

All the berberis species love clay, and if you get some of the pretty variegated kinds with burgundy and pink leaves, they give a wonderful splash of vibrant colour.  Similarly, the chaenomeles species – ornamental quince to you and me – love clay and produce pretty flowers very early in spring.  Depending on the variety you choose they can range from deep orange red right through to palest peach.

Bright yellow forsythia gives early spring colour on clay and the bright pink flowers of ribes sanguineum or flowering currant will pick up as soon as the forsythia stops.

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