It’s so tempting to just post a pretty picture of blooming rhododendrons or bearded iris, but instead I bring you a small discourse on that fabled thing whose existence I sometimes doubt: A fine tilth.
I’ve heard rumours about it, of course, and seen it on gardening TV shows, though I’m sure it’s all done with mirrors, or possibly computer animation. For all I know, there IS no such thing as “a fine tilth”.
When I put my spade in the ground, this is what I contend with:
A 10″ layer of dense, compacted soil that will NEVER become “a fine tilth” – or even a mediocre tilth…And then comes the pure clay.
Now, don’t get me wrong; when I don’t have to dig holes in it I really appreciate my soil; even the top soil is packed with clay particles, so it has excellent water retention properties and I will never ever have to water a flower bed or a vegetable garden! (But god, it’s heavy stuff to shift around…)
Then comes another layer – perhaps another 10″ – of pure clay mixed with sediments from when this area was seabed, though in some areas these two layers are separated by an inch of sand. That’s the only real issue I have with my soil; it prevents rain water from seeping into the ground, so the top soil gets rather soggy after heavy rain. However, the drain we had installed last year more or less takes care of this, so at the end of the day I suspect I couldn’t ask for a better place for my plants.
They will never dry out and wilt, and the soil feels rich and nutritious, so I’m quite sure there is also very little risk of them going “hungry”.
The two pictures above are the Rhododendrons that used to grow on the Flâneur Husband’s deck in Aberdeen and that I carried home in a sports bag as checked-in luggage on the flight… I’m amazed how well they came through that ordeal, and they seem to be really happy in their new country.
This is a rhododendron that was in the garden when we bought the summer house, but it’s putting on the best display I’ve seen from it so far, and I’m completely in love with it. The buds have a striking blue colour, though the flowers turn out much more purple – which is also pretty!
And here’s a shot from the day after:
The Rhododendron has done brilliantly considering it’s means of arrival to your garden.
I dream of this thing called a fine tilth on my allotment – I just don’t dig, too depressing when I do, so I keep layering and layering and hoping that one day I will have some decent soil for teeny seedlings. But as you say, it is rich in wonderful nutrients so there are the positives!
I try to work in a large amount of compost in the top 5 inches when I create new beds, and then follow up on that with compost mulching, so perhaps my digging days will be over once I have carved out enough beds and borders from the lawn.
And the rhododendrons are little troopers, I think! (Mind you, I’ve just returned from a visit to my parents with 5 lilac saplings in my bag… Apparently I just don’t feel right when travelling without at least SOME plants.)
I studied horticulture for a while and ‘fine tilth’ was mentioned a lot. Of course it should never be too fine otherwise you end up with ‘capping’ where a crust forms on the surface. I seem to be creating too fine a tilth and this might explain why I have so many problems getting seeds to germinate when direct sown. I’m going for the no dig method of gardening after a recent visit to the farm of salad growing guru Charles Dowding. His soil is amazing after years of just applying copious amounts of compost and manure to the surface and allowing worms to do the rest. Good for the soil and the back!
As much digging as I’ve done over the past six months, I definitely want to cut back on it. (I seem to have messed up my back a week ago, so tomorrow I must try to get an appointment with a doctor.) Still, I can’t create new beds without digging away the turf, so some digging is inevitable for this purpose, but apart from that I’ll definitely give the no-dig method a try once the beds have been created.
If you fancied raised beds it is possible to put the compost and manure directly onto the soil, if it’s deep enough it will not grow and will rot down to a lovely loam. I hurt my back at the start of the season and really thought I would need to see an osteopath. Fortunately, rest seemed to do the trick, although I think I need to accept I’m just getting older!! Hope your back feels better soon.
With the sort of weeds I have in my lawn I’d have to put on a rather thick layer, and I’m not likely to get my hands on that much compost, let alone manure. I tried that with the vegetable beds and 10 inches on compost – layered on top of a thick layer of newspaper to block the turf and weeds further – and it was woefully inadequate and lead to beds where I still have lots of weeds coming up.
What I have to accept is not age, I guess, but just that I’m terribly unfit. I need to pace myself, rather than going “all-in” with spade and fork. After all, I work at an office, so my back muscles just aren’t up for too much heavy lifting and this causes me to lift in the wrong ways.
We strived for a fine tilth, and yes we got it only to end up with a situation such as wellywoman describes. It was a number of years before it was sorted out. You just about had me doing a google search for the Aberdeen Rhododendron.
Well, the name tags were thrown out, sadly, so I have no idea what the rhododendrons are. The middle one is different from the two others, though.
And I promise not to over-work the soil. After all, I do enjoy the fact that no plant in my garden shall ever want for moisture, and if that comes with the price of lumps of clay on top of the soil, so be it; it will be covered up in compost come Autumn.
I gave up on my soil after a while…it is clay with some amendments but it will do…the rhodies do not like our clay though!
The rhodies have been given a slightly different treatment; I dug the planting holes and filled them with a mix of 2 parts decomposed pine needles and 1 part regular compost. It should at least give them SOME acidity in the soil, and I’ll be topdressing them soon with more pine needles and pine shavings.
Tilth, shmilth! Your soil sounds good. I’d kill for your 10 inches of topsoil, even if it is compacted. I have 2 inches of heavy soil (at the most) over solid clay for about 10 inches, then rock. Plenty of nutrients, but a really bad structure. I don’t dig, just put stuff on top. Complaining time over. Bettter now.
Clay soil has its benefits, and we should be grateful for it. I love how it retains moisture even during the hottest of spells… And of course it’s packed with nutrients, so it makes it very easy to be saintly about the no-watering, no-fertilizer approach to gardening, just adding back compost so we don’t take any more away from the soil than what we put in (rather the opposite).