Building up a border on a clay base
pbrown1907
Posts: 2
Hi all,
Very amateur gardener here, but looking to learn some tricks.
Currently, all around my house I have no area where I can grow a garden. Out the front it is all tarmac-ed with hedges along the boundary and a small stone covered area, and out the back it is mostly raised decking, with a side area stone covered up to a smaller area of decking. This side area is the only place I could possibly create an area for some flowers (that are not in containers).
Along this side stone covered area runs a hedge and wall (the decking has a fence that ends at the hedge). I am wanting to dig up the stones along the hedge and wall and make a border that goes up as far as my decking, say around a foot and a half out. I have quickly dug up a small area at the edge of the wall to see what lies beneath and it looks like under the stones there is a clay soil. I haven't dug in front of the hedge yet. The area is pretty much always in shade, if it gets direct sun its very seldom throughout the year. Ideally I would hope to plant something like lavendar under the hedge
(as I've been growing this in pots up to now there), and some sort of climber at the wall.
How would I go about making this border on top of the existing clay soil? Would it be better to build up more of a raised bed than simply a border flush with the remaining path of stones? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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Posts
Your soil will need a good dig over, adding well rotted organic matter, loosening it up and letting in air and water so that it turns back into a healthy growing medium, then you can start looking at what sort of plants you like. There's lots of advice on here about planting shady areas, too.
After that the soil will settle and the level will drop, so give it several weeks of rain and dry or you could find your plants sinking much lower than expected!
After that, you're good to go, I should think.
However, the first thing you need to do is clear the area you initially want to plant removing stones, any weed membrane, rubble and rubbish and checking there is no further impediment just below such as drains, concrete or whatever else builders hide. The next thing to know is that clay is inherently fertile but its particles are so fine it will not drain well when wet and will dry like concrete when there is no rain so you need to open up the texture.
The best way to do that is to fork it over and break it into clods then break up the clods if you can to a smaller size and then pile on a deep layer of well-rotted manure and/or garden compost. There's no point hurrying this phase as the more organic matter you can get layered in the clay, the faster it will break down and become more manageable. Adding further layers of garden compost, manure or bought in soil conditioner every autumn will also help. The worms and other soil micro organisms will work it in for you over the winter.
You need to look up plants suited to clay soil and shade and also establish whether your soil is acid, neutral or alkaline. Soil tester kits are available at garden centre and good DIY stores and are not expensive. If the soil is neutral to acid you could try camellias but for a smaller shrub have a look at leucothoe. Both will be much bigger than lavender tho.
It turns out I followed the "no dig" method I just didn't know it at the time, I was just being lazy when faced with clay 😂 it's worth looking up, could save you a lot of effort digging if you think it would be appropriate for your border
Things that I’ve grown well in shade & clay are Dicentra/ hosta/ ferns/ bergenia/ lady mantle/ hydrangeas/ pyracantha/ viburnum 👍