Amending Clay: With time and nurturing, gardeners can maximize clay soil's virtues and minimize its faults

摘要

Many gardeners consider clayey soil to be a liability. It's sticky, heavy, and soggy. It compacts easily. It is slow to warm, hard to work, and sometimes so dense that it's hard for roots to penetrate. But soils with a moderate proportion of clay (20to 40 percent is considered best) contain more organic matter and nutrients and retain moisture better than soilswith equivalent amounts of sand. In fact, highly productive agricultural soils like those in the prairies stretching from Canada south through the Midwest are rich in clay.