Barnstorming on an Invisible Segway

https://bomberqueen17.tumblr.com/post/805917510588366848

Nah fuck that it sounds like a lot of work.

Truth is, if you do sheet composting on top of that heavy clay worms and soil microbes will do the heavy lifting here for you. And ‘for ages’ could be anything, so let me clarify; this could take years. My soil was badly compacted and roughly as dense as concrete when we got our place. It took about three years of constant mulching and more mulching and also mulching some more for worms and microbes and stuff to work the soil nice and soft.

Digging up the whole thing is going to ruin all the habitat for those nice critters who will do your work for you. Digging it up every year is going to mean that they never get a good go at it, and will basically stall you out with shit clay soil forever.

Hint; work just a BIT of sand into that clay with some compost. The sand will help it drain better. But do this only once.

Raised beds may be a good idea at first, while the wormies are doing their job.

wodneswynn:

Also: If your soil is that difficult to work, just build some raised beds. The soil fauna will be happy to move up in the world, *and* you don’t have to bend over as much

systlin:

I’ve never tried them, but I’ve heard excellent things.

underthehedge:

Remember, clay soil isn’t inherently bad. the vast majority of soil nutrients are stored attached to clay particles because that’s how they work: nutrients plants need are metal ions and nitrogenous compounds and the mixture of positive and negative charges on clays stops them being washed away. Compacted clay is balls but also I’m jealous of your potential for small natural ponds just by doing a bit of digging and then stamping about to compact it into a liner. 

@systlin​ what are your thoughts on planting diakon radish? They’re sometimes sold as tillage radish because they’re excellent at penetrating compacted clay. You can plant those and let them just do their thing where they grow deep, break up clay layers and, if you leave them in the soil to rot instead of harvesting them they introduce organic matter directly into the soil.

one note on tillage radishes: we've used them as pasture cover crops on the farm but do be aware that they will self-reseed. so. if you want to plant anything that isn't daikon radishes, you'll want to either cut the tops off before they set seed, or perhaps crimp them (squash them flat, break the stems) before they set seed. because if you just let them go, well, you'll be growing radishes again next year, and you'll have to be pulling them out for ages, and they'll be part of your weed seed bank forevermore.
which isn't necessarily bad, but you should just be aware of this. part of effective cover-cropping is remembering that the cover crop will set seeds at some point so you should maybe consider that in your long-term plan.

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