What I have found with my hard clay is that it's best just to pile the organic stuff on top and not try to work it too much. If you pile enough organic matter on top, the worms will find it and start loosening it up. I do a lot of lasagna gardening on mine. You can find info about this in the Soils forum - or buy the book - can't remember the author, but I just bought it at Hastings a couple of weeks ago. If there are no worms and the drainage is bad, you may have to do some raised beds while you're waiting for the worms to loosen things up. Or plant right into the lasagna beds. What I have read is that clay will always be clay. You will always have to add organic matter to keep it loose enough, but that it has its advantages - holds moisture and nutrients better. Good luck.

Hi Y'all,

Clay, hmmm, imagine finding clay in Edmond, Oklahoma. I thought ALL the clay in Oklahoma was here at my house. :)

It seems like you face dual issues: soil improvement and drainage, although they are related.

DRAINAGE:

Do you know how quickly that stagnant clay does or does not drain? Does it hold water for days? Weeks? Does it EVER dry out completely? And how far down is the sopping wet soil? If it is just a few inches down, say 4" or 6", I don't think I'd try raising veggies there without a raised bed. On the other hand, if it is 18" or 24" down, you can probably amend the upper layers of clay enough to raise veggies without building a raised bed.

And, no, excavating the clay and dumping good topsoil into the "hole" left behind isn't really a great ideal. When you do that, you are essentially raising a garden in a non-draining "container" full of soil, 'cause that clay is going to hold the water and keep your topsoil wet for a long, long time. It is better to keep the clay you have and amend it. Clay is very fertile and rich in minerals. It makes great soil once amended. And earthworms love it once it has organic material in it for them to munch on.

SOIL IMPROVEMENT:

If you buy a load of topsoil, be careful. A lot of people sell junk clay and junk sand that aren't good for anything and call them "top soil". I wouldn't buy "topsoil" from anyone who couldn't tell me approximately how much of it was sand, clay, silt, organic material, etc. I have bought a 50/50 mix of native soil/compost (but down in Texas and not here in Oklahoma) and it was incredibly good veggie growing soil.

You will have to add lots of organic material the first year: peat moss, compost, manure, finely shredded bark, etc. After that, though, you can maintain the bed by what I call "lasagna mulching"...just add whatever you think the bed needs each year to the top of the bed, cover with something like hay, straw or shredded bark mulch that won't wash away, and let the worms do their thing. Some people add sand to clay, and it is a matter of hot debate on the Soil Forum as to whether or not it is a good idea. I did add some sand to improve drainage, but I wouldn't have added a little sand had I not added a LOT of organic material.

RAISED BEDS: I prefer them, especially for tomato plants. However, if you add 6 or 8" of organic material to the area where your mom wants to have her herbs and veggies, you will find that all the material HAS raised the level of the soil above the existing grade and you've basically created a raised bed, although I guess it is really just a mounded bed. And there is nothing wrong with that.

BTW, I prefer the "lasagna garden" method for building raised beds too. I wish Pat Lanza had written her 2 books a couple of decades ago before I spent all those years double-digging and amending soil at my previous home.

Finally, if all your mom wants is a small number of tomato and pepper plants, there is always the option of raising them in large containers, and putting clay-loving herbs in the ground.

Dawn

What I did when we first moved to our place was dig a hole in the clay ues it to make a ring around the hole. Fill it with cheep potting soil. That would leave me with a crude raised bed.Then mulch. After a while I found it was cheaper to buy a bag of peat humas and a bag of top soil then mix in some of the clay.
Now if I plant a tomato or a pepper. I dig a one shovel full sized hole mix that with compost then mulch. It improves each year and some spots I only mulch now.

You've just described my north yard! Everyone has different experences, here are mine.
With drainage than bad you should bite the bullet and make a raised area for planting. I lost quite a few plants before I did that. I tried digging out clay and putting on good soil. That made a big ole' pot with no drainage!Lasagna is great but with that bad of an area it will take years to see a big difference. I don't know how old your folks are but I assume they would rather spend their remaining years gardening rather than fighting bad soil.
Good luck!

Jerri

P.S. We made a patio surrounded with burmed planting areas. A raised bed doesn't have to look like one!

Thank you all for your wonderful advice. I think I am going to take the suggestions of all of you and build on that. The plan of attack is, We are going to add lots of compost, peat and coffee grounds and use the garden claw to work it in around the existing plants.

Jerri, my Mom is 55 going on 20 so I know she has quite a few great years ahead of her but she is not the most avid gardener and I know she is not willing to spend as much time (she would rather focus on her art) on gardening as I do. We are considering container gardening for her until her soil becomes more workable. Thanks again for all the advice.

One way to check your drainage is to dig a hole about a foot and a half deep. Fill it with water and see how quickly it drans. If it only takes a few minutes, your drainage is good. If it takes hours, you have a problem.
I agree that you should NOT add top soil but should add compost and hay an dlayer until the earthworm action begins to arreate the soil.

a foot and a half deep?? Your clay isn't all that bad if you can actually "dig" 1 1/2 feet into it. I'm on the west edge of Broken Arrow, and all the moles around here wear hard hats and carry little bitty pick-axes to do their work...

I started out having to use a pick to break up the clay a little bit at a time. I've been working on it half-sassed for about 4 years, throwing grass, chipped tree trimmings, leaves, chopped up corn stalks, whatever fertilizer i've got in the garage, and most anything else I can think of into it and using my Mantis on it. I've gone from clumps the size of softballs down to little marble-sized pieces. Even have a few earthworms the last year or two.

If the earworms will allow it, I hope to have enough sweet corn to enjoy this summer...