How do you deal with clay soil

[guerrilaWarior]

damn alot of you guys are growing in clay based soils.. that sucks. I recommend not growing it in there, not worth the effort in ammending the soil. Just bring in your own bags, save you some time and your herb will be better. Ive seen what clay bud is like, and it aint pretty

My spot is simply amazing beside the clay based soils and the fact that its on a island and the 15 min walk in torn bushes. So bringin soil is much more work than using tree compost and humic acid to amend the clay based soil.

Lot of work, but defenetly worth it. I'm really satisfied with my soil mix ! Light and packed with nutriment !

my hole are now between 21/2 feet and 3feet in diameter now and packed with my soil mix. I was going to transplant tomorow

 

[guerrilaWarior]

I've now decide to bring a couple of perlite bag to help with drainage

 

[mistisrising]

There's a lot of clay around me, also. My mixture is as follows:

8 quarts of regular soil
4 cups of sand
1 heavy handful of limestone
1 heavy handful of bone meal

First, I dig a three foot round, two foot deep hole in the ground. Next I put in the mix (I make it up prior and portion it per plant in separate bags), then I add some of the clay back since it really holds the moisture. I try not to put any more than 25% of the clay back in the whole since it compacts so easy. If there wasn't any clay I would sub for the sand with perlite or vermiculite to help hold water, and keep the soil loose. It probably wouldn't hurt of you put it in there anyway, the worst thing about clay is that it restricts the root growth.

A lot of the guys I know think I'm crazy for adding the clay back, but between that, the lime and the bone meal, as long as I get rain once every two weeks I don't have to water when they are flowering. The clay holds water, the lime controls ph, and the bone meal provides phosphorous for flowering. When growing outside, you can't be too careful about leaving a path, so the less you go the harder to find it.