There have been some in-depth discussions in the Soil Forum
on clay soils, and you may want to look around and post over there..... I haven't followed the goings-on for a while, but it used to be a great forum, very active. Sorry about your not-drying soil. Hope you find a solution.

It may be helpful to include the size of the area you are working with, and the geographical area where your garden is located.

Add granulated gypsum to clay, not sand. Sand might help a little, but from my personal experience, it basically turns clay into quicksand. The gypsum prevents the clay from sticking together, so the soil is able to release the water.

To quickly dry out the garden, at least more quickly than the sun shining on it, dig a hole in the lowest part of the garden, line it with something (concrete blocks work pretty well), and use a sub utility pump to pump out the water. You might have to dig more than one hole depending upon size of garden.

If the garden gets overly wet year after year, a french drain surrounding the garden would probably be a good addition.

Good luck.

RW

That's certainly a big problem! It sounds as though you've managed to create a large soil "bowl" with reasonable soil additions in most circumstances, but the surrounding clay prevents water drainage from your amended soil area, serving as a nearly impermeable surround for your new soil. just like setting a bowl of soil into the earth.

I agree with someguyinmaine -- drainage of some kind is probably your best best to reasonably free up the area. Is there anyplace you can drain the water TO? Any lower-lying areas for drainage? A pump in a hole might work temporarily but I'd think a French drain would be a better solution. At least it's doable with a lot of elbow grease.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to build a French Drain

You need to distinguish between a poorly textured soil with bad aeration and drainage, and a high water table. If you dig a hole and it fills up with water, you have a high water table, and no amount of soil amendments is going to fix that. As suggested, install a drainage system. But be careful. Designing the right drainage system is a job for an expert. If you screw up, you could end up with no improvement, or you could end up with a clogged system after a couple of years, or you could get sued by your neighbor for flooding his property.

On the other hand, if your water table is fine, but your soil texture is lousy, a drainage system isn't going to do a thing for you except drain your bank account.

Let's assume for the moment that your water table is OK. Since you have removed the vegetation and covered the soil with amendments, it will probably take a long time for it to dry enough to till. This is always a problem with a new garden. It would be a big mistake to rototill the soil while it's muddy.

Why did you till 24" deep? You have probably brought up a lot of nasty subsoil that was better left where it was.

I use sand to break up clay soil. See the link. I've done at least six gardens using sand, all over the US. It works fine. Compost, gypsum and lime also help, but sand is immediate and permanent.

Here is a link that might be useful: amending clay soil

lilydude

(and riverwalker) Keep in mind that heavy clay soils have a "bowl effect" if you lighten the soil in the middle of a bed of clay, serving as a water-sink in effect, or a container with lots of water and extremely slow drainage. It doesn't matter where the water table is. Solid clay all around is the problem Check out the container forum for more on this phenomenon. Al Tapla is the person to ask.

But you are quite right that a French drain needs careful consideration and placement. You certainly don't want to drain your unwanted water onto a neighbor's property. And the same is true of sump pumps -- that water has to go somewhere.

Dig a pond?

Riverwalker, if it seems insoluble or too permanent or too expensive to deal with, you could think about container gardening. Lots of people do it here on GardenWeb.

Since the amended soil has large capillary pores, and the clay soil has small capillary pores, the water will be held weakly in the amended soil, and tightly in the clay soil. Therefore, the water will flow into the clay soil, where it will then flow downward very slowly. This is similar to rainwater hitting the top of clay soil, and then percolating downward into the subsoil. So the amended soil at the surface does not have much effect on the overall rate of water flow, which is limited primarily by the clay.

Contrast this with the situation where a clay soil is at the surface, with a sandy soil underneath it. Intuitively, you would think that vertical water flow would be fast. In fact, since the water is held tightly by the clay, and "pulled" loosely by the sand, the water will tend to remain in the clay. This is basically a "perched water table", the same as occurs in a container with heavy potting mix.

As far as horizontal flow out of a "bowl" is concerned, this will only happen when the "bowl" is completely saturated with water. Most normal soil water flow is vertical.

I suspect that the main problem here is that the soil is wet, there is no transpirational demand (because there are no plants), and there is little evaporation (because the weather is cold and wet). Patience is required.

A photo would be helpful.

lilydude

I've often thought how serendipitous it would be to get JUST the right water flow by amending clay soil. We have deep heavy red Georgia clay that's gummy when wet and bricklike when dry. Being on a slope, I don't have drainage problems, though the heavy clay can be problematic if not kept moist. I've learned to cope with it by building mulched raised beds that provide nice friable soil to the short roots of plants, and the larger stronger roots burrow down into the clay, which is incredibly rich in nutrients because they take so long to move through the soil. It's also very deep and absolutely no sand under it, so flat or low land drains very slowly and is not optimal for many plants, though others seem to thrive in it.

Of course, not all clay soils or terrains are the same. And while most water flow is vertical because it's aided by gravity, some water can wick sideways, unaided by gravity, into dryer soil as well.

Let's hope riverwalker can get his bed in shape for planting since he went to all that trouble!

I've been dealing with heavy adobe clay soil for 10 years now and I'm finally getting really wonderfully friable gardening areas. Don't know if you're willing to put in the time but I don't know of any quick solutions so maybe the best way to start is to settle in for the long haul.

The advice I got 10 years ago when we bought this house was treat your clay like a container. Dig a generous hole and amend it generously with compost. Then plant. The person who gave me this advice called it the $6 hole for a $2 plant method.

It works. Over time the plant roots and earthworms are going to work that compost in far more effectively than you or I could. Give them some help -- set up a compost pile. I started with one that I was constantly "working" to try to get the world's speed record for compost production. Today I have about 72 sq ft (4 piles) in various stages of passive decomposition. I get about 1.5 cu yds of compost to add to my garden every year without more work than the digging and hauling to transport grass, leaves, garden debris & kitchen waste to the pile and the compost back to my growing beds.

The other things I've learned over the years is NEVER dig wet clay and overcome the urge to take a tiller to it. That will only disturb the natural architecture the roots, worm, etc manage to achieve that admits oxygen to the roots. In addition, it further compacts the mass. And if you MUST dig, use only a digging fork in barely moist soil because this will disturb the architecture the least and kill the minimum number of those worms that are soooo valuable.

When the clay is dry and you have those brick-like clods, the bet way I've found to break them up is to rub two of them together.

I would add that I began my efforts by digging in gypsite and sand. The gypsite did keep the soil from clumping so much but it did nothing to improve it. The sand just made the soil heavier. The tiny clay particles were so small that they filled in the miniscule spaces between grains of sand very effectively meaning that, unless you're prepared to dig in your basic beach, sand has little effect and, again, no improvement of the nutritional composition of your soil.

Take heart! Your clay is probably very rich organically. If you work it diligently you will see improvement every single year and, one day, you will have soil to envy.

RW Hope you come back and post some pictures plus let us know how you're doing.

Just in case, here's a link that Zeedman posted elsewhere.....

Here is a link that might be useful: How to post pictures