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05-20-2012, 05:13 AM

#38

QuiltE

Power Poster

Join Date: Apr 2011

Location: Ontario, Canada

Posts: 17,718

Clay ... I know all about it ... UGH! .... Raised in heavy clay country and our first farm was just that, though it did have some lighter fields. Oh joy, oh bliss. All my flowerbeds were always heavy clay, and as for getting any compost/manure to help lighten it up, forget it .... farmer husband was non-cooperative and non-interested.

When we bought our farm in '88, we thought we were in heaven ... loam! It was beautiful in the fields, garden, flower beds. I remember the former owner saying to us ... you don't have to know how to farm in this land, you just throw the seeds in and it grows!!!! He was a good farmer, though he was totally correct on the not needing to know how ... for clay, OMG you could sure mess things up if you did it wrong ... and lots did, due to being impatient!

Wet spring weather in clay country meant 10 lbs of mud on your boots.
Wet spring weather in this beautiful loam, hardly a trace!

So I always sympathize with those with clay .... though in a dry year, you have the advantage that the soil retains the moisture better for the plants, and the crops can generally fair better than in the lighter soils.

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