Using topsoil to amend clay

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by netwiz on August 09, 2006 08:48 AM

I just discovered that my property has great soil once you get beyond the parameter of the house. I had been working around the foundation of the house so far and the soil is hard rocky clay. I live on a mountain and now suspect the topsoil was removed when they leveled the area to build the house. The clay is probably the subsoil.

Can I bring in top soil from other areas of the property and mix it in with the clay stuff (along with compost) rather than amend with expensive mulch and peat moss? My only concern would be bringing along the overabundance of weeds my place seems to have. Do you think it would work? [dunno]

Joanne

by tkhooper on August 09, 2006 09:18 AM

best thing to do is leave the clay as a subsoil and then put the topsoil on top and grow your plants in that. Make a slight raised bed of about 8 inches.

You can solarize the topsoil before you put it on the bed to kill the weeds if it gets warm enough at your location.

Solarization: Spread the soil out on black top cover it with black plastic and let sit for 6 to 8 weeks. That will kill all of the weed seeds.

Good luck with your foundation flower beds.

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by netwiz on August 09, 2006 10:26 AM

Thanks for the great tips Tk. I could do raised beds for about half of the foundation, the areas that have brick at least 8" high. The areas with siding that sits lower will probably have to still be amended. I LOVE the idea of only digging up half!

I wonder if I can convince my husband to let me bake the topsoil in the driveway. He is a little anal about things so I'm not sure if I could pull that one off. I'll have to make his favorite dinner tonight and kiss up a little. [kissies]

Joanne

by tkhooper on August 10, 2006 02:11 AM

lol. About where you have siding. They have edging up to 8 inches tall that is all metal. If you put that on the siding side you could still do a raised bed. It is on the costly side. But if you can talk your husband into letting you solarizing the soil what you would save in buying garden soil and weed killer would probably be about the same amount of money.

Bake one pan of soil in the oven for two hours and he will definitely let you solarize lol. It has a destinctive odor when done inside the house lol. I'm so bad.

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by netwiz on August 10, 2006 03:14 AM

You are too funny! I mentioned baking the topsoil to him last night and he didn't look very "supportive" of my plan. He did raise a good question though... our black topped area only gets sun a few hours a day. We are in the woods and most of the property is under tree cover. How much sun would the topsoil need to get for the weed seeds to be killed off?

I took a good look around the foundation last night and realized that a large section that has lower siding is where we are building a deck next spring. No need to do anything to the soil in that area! That only leaves me with about 12 feet that has siding to be concerned about. This is getting better and better! I will probably just amend that part since it is not an overwhelming amount of space.

I can't wait to get started!

Joanne

by patches1414 on August 10, 2006 05:32 PM

quote:
I took a good look around the foundation last night and realized that a large section that has lower siding is where we are building a deck next spring. No need to do anything to the soil in that area! That only leaves me with about 12 feet that has siding to be concerned about.

Since it's such a smaller area now that you've looked at it. Did you ever think about taking out some of the clay soil and adding that amount of top soil and then it won't interfere with the siding. [Wink]

Actually that's what I did to the beds on two sides of my house. I didn't have siding to worry about but there are window wells on those two sides so I couldn't have the soil any higher than what it was originally. [Frown]

This worked really great and it wasn't that expensive!

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"Lord, I love you and I need you, come into my heart, and bless me, my family, my home, and my friends, in Jesus' name. Amen!"

by netwiz on August 11, 2006 12:41 AM

That sounds like a good idea Patches, although will the large mountain laurel growing in that bed be an issue?

I plan to rip out the other shrubs but I'm not sure how to deal with the mountain laurel. Can I leave a circle of dirt where the roots are and just fill in around it? Even if I just amend the soil I seem to have the same issue of how to avoid disturbing its roots. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Joanne

by tkhooper on August 11, 2006 01:31 AM

The temp to kill off the weeds is 140 degrees. And it only takes a couple of hours at that temperature in the oven. Why it takes weeks to solarize is a question I can't answer. Somewhere there is an article about it but I didn't keep a link to it so I don't know the website.

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by netwiz on August 11, 2006 03:47 AM

Thanks Tk, I'll do a google search and see if I can find some more info. Would be nice to just bake the weeds away. [grin]

Joanne

by patches1414 on August 11, 2006 08:03 AM

quote:
That sounds like a good idea Patches, although will the large mountain laurel growing in that bed be an issue?

Joanne, in the one bed I had a Clematis and two large Hibiscus growing in it so I just dug out all the dirt around those three plants leaving the soil intact around the roots. There was no reason to get that close to the roots to remove the clay soil since those plants were growing fine in it. Besides, I didn't really need to disturb their roots since I wouldn't be planting anything that close to them.

* * * *

"Lord, I love you and I need you, come into my heart, and bless me, my family, my home, and my friends, in Jesus' name. Amen!"

by tkhooper on August 11, 2006 08:03 AM

If you can't bake them away I've found that once the soil is tilled and amended weeds are much easier to pull up. And if you do it right after it rains it's a breeze. Weezie taught me that. And it makes it much easier.

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by netwiz on August 11, 2006 09:24 AM

Patches, thank you. I will just dig around the mountain laurel and try not to disturb the roots. I'm hoping to plant my winter sowing seedlings (keep your fingers crossed) into the foundation beds next spring. Of course that means I'll have to get the beds ready this fall and I'm starting to think I bit off more than I can chew! [shocked]

Tk, I might have to stick with the tilling. My hubby doesn't like the idea of piling the dirt on the driveway and since I'll be asking him to do most of the digging... [lala]

Joanne

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