How to Improve Heavy Clay Soil
- 1). Place 2 to 3 inches of peat moss on the surface of your garden bed.
- 2). Add 2 to 3 inches of compost on top of the peat moss.
- 3). Scatter 10 lbs. of perlite for every 100 square feet of garden bed on top of the peat moss and compost.
- 4). Till the peat moss, compost and perlite into the soil with a rototiller. Set the tines to their deepest level. Make two passes through the garden bed, the second at right angles to the direction of the first.
- 5). Rake the surface of the soil smooth.
- 6). Broadcast seeds of white clover on the surface of the garden bed.
- 7). Allow the clover to grow for three weeks after it germinates, then till it into the top 6 inches of the soil.
- 8). Mulch the surface of the garden bed with straw or hay for the winter months.
- 9). Till the hay or straw into the top 6 inches of the soil the following spring as soon as the soil is thawed and dry enough to work.
- 10
Allow the hay to decompose in the soil for two to three weeks prior to planting the garden bed.
