Clay doesn't take on moisture very well, so perhaps much of your heavy rains have just washed away downstream. You could try to do some very slow soaking with a soaker hose to see if you can rehab a small area. Core aeration would also help a bit and you could even try a root zone waterer to see if that helps

Here is a link that might be useful: www.gardeninginconverse.com (my garden blog)

David: I live in Cinti. too, so I have the native clay, and that drought was awful. But so far this year I haven't experienced what you describe. In fact, I just finished watering flowers for the first time this year. The established plants are fine, it's just the tiny new seedlings that needed a drink.

Have you mulched your beds yet this year? Lots of mulch helps a lot. Adding compost and a lot of organic mulch (wood in summer, leaves in fall, some grass clippings in between) has really made a great difference in my soil in the last few years.

Karen

My response would just mirror what hipgardener and Karen just posted. They are "spot on" with their recommendations.
Bill Hill

I have icky clay soil and I agree that mulch helps...

I have similar soil here on the west coast. We get lots of rain in the winter and 3 months of drought in the summer. All of the recommendations for watering lawns say give it a deep watering 1X a week. By then it is so dried out the water tends to run off. I'm thinking this year that I am going to try and keep the soil moist instead. I do mulch the flower beds and the veggies and have lasagna gardens on top of the clay, but when I dig down, the worms don't seem to be mixing the clay with the lasagna sheets. It's a constant struggle.

billhill: Hipgardener? Are you calling me hippy? (You're right)

Dotty--try watering in stages. Water until it just starts to run off, then water another area until it starts to run off. Go around the lawn doing that until you've covered the entire lawn, then start at the beginning again. That gives the water a chance to soak deeper into the soil.

g'day david,

we have nearly always had to deal with clay, we use lots of gypsum as it is the type of clay that will respond (the type most gardeners have), then we use lots of organic material as well as heavy mulching, but the best thing to do is use raised garden beds when you have clay, this makes gardening a whole lot easier.

clay is slow to take up moisture but once saturated it is slow to drain also and excess water runs off the top, that is why dams have a clay base once the clays is saturated it holds back the water from seeping away.

something that may help is to use a wetting agent in the water this can be as simple as common household detergent we often use our dishwater around our plants.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

most soil in my area is clay or at least clay with a layer of top soil over it. my neighbors all water their lawns at least 1x a week. during the spring/summer we get thunderstorms that dump 1" or more in an hour. usually my neighbors' yards all flood when this happens. mine, which never gets watered other than inthe garden, is usually dry within a couple hours. the cracks soak up the run off, and the top layer sucks up the rest.

last year i had huge cracks in teh outer edges of the lawn. since they were out by the horse pasture i let them be. but i use the water spigot out there to fill my tow behind sprayer and tried an experiment one day. i left teh 2" hose running full bore into a crack for over 20 minutes and never did the water level build enough that i could even see it in the crack! i guess this year i will water the worst areas a few times to prevent the 4'+ deep cracks that often run 50+ feet.

Davidandkasie, it sounds like your clay is worse than mine! However, I'm sure in the summertime I could run the hose full bore and it would only leave a damp spot. Interestingly, I was trying to dig a hole in the clay the other day in order to plant a shrub and it was so hard, I ran the hose on it to soften it. I was able to dig my hole, but it then filled up with water and an hour later was still full! We always joke that we have a window of 20 minutes between clumpy clay and dry like cement.
bpgreen, thanks for the advice. I think what you are suggesting is sort of along the line of what I am thinking: water attracts water and if it isn't too dry perhaps it will penetrate better.

Thanks for all the imput. I have mulched my plantings which consist primarily of woody plants, tree and conifers. They all still look fine but I noticed some spots in the yard that look very dry for all the moisture we have had this spring. I'll have to dig down a couple of feet and see how the moisture is. David

The very small and neat clay soil particles can slide together to make an impervious soil for both moisture and nutrients and the best way to get either one into clay soil is with the addition of lots of organic matter that will seperate those mineral soil particles so the moisture, and nutrients, can move around easier. If one needs to aerate any soil more than once it does not have enough organic matter and adding more will, eventually, do the job.