If you're not sure if you have clay soil but suspect it might be the case, it's a good idea to find out more about soil types, as knowing what you're working with is key to gardening success.

But because clay traps water in its small pores, those water-borne nutrients are unavailable for root uptake. 1 The goal of amending clay soil is to increase the size of the particles that make it up.

Learning how to improve clay soil for gardening will increase the health of your flowers and the yields of your crops. Thankfully, it's not as difficult as it first appears – there are short ...

Soils with high clay content tend to have slow water movement and may remain wet for long periods of time. Construction will also cause compaction of the soil, making drainage even slower and ...

The best way to mix this in is with a fork or shovel. Rototilling might be good the first time you add organics (in your case with “pure” clay), but over time, as your soil improves, just use ...

Don’t let clay soil get too dry before planting, though, or it becomes rock hard. The way clay slurps up and holds water makes it a good thing as summer weather turns dry.

If your soil has too many small clay particles, then water and nutrients can’t move well down and through the soil. Think of a stack of pennies in a jar and how poorly water would pass through.

Here’s where the Master Gardener mantra comes in: The best thing you can do for your garden is mulch, mulch, mulch; compost, compost, compost. You can find more information on making compost and ...

Loam soil is a mineral mixture of clay, sand, and silt. In the right proportions, loam is the ideal medium for growing plants. Its mineral content makes up less than half of the soil, while the ...

Clay soil Clay soil is usually sticky and has small particles. They contain very few air gaps and water does not drain through it easily so it can usually stay wet for a long time.