Soil Could use some advice from experienced gardeners.

[Martinhouse]

This last spring, with the help of some family, I put together a nice container garden composed of 60 half-barrels from the white plastic 30 gallon barrels.

Anyway, I used the wrong type of dirt to fill them and this year's garden has been a total bust. I don't mind a learning experience, but it needs fixing. I'm buying some better soil, some that I know will work well, but what I have in the containers now is mostly the new stuff which turns out to be mainly sand and powdered-up peat moss that seems to be colored black with charcoal.

If my property had soil that was mainly clay, I would try to gradually mix it in with the sandy stuff in the containers, but I don't have any and it would be horribly difficult to blend it in. This afternoon I got a sudden idea and I need to know if it would work.

What if I were to get lots of the cheap kitty litter that doesn't have any chemicals in it? I know kitty litter is clay, but is it the right kind of clay to balance out soil that is too sandy? If so, would it need to be half-and-half proportioned?

I sure hope someone knows if this would work as it will take me a while to hit all of the Dollar General stores in town to get enough kitty litter to mix in 60 containers.

Oh, and I plan to put the poor soil that I remove from the containers into the chicken run where I put all the leaves in the fall, so it can eventually be blended with all the leaves I give the chickens to grind up and make into compost for me.

 

[Txkstew]

I'd go easy on the clay. It might be good for moisture retention, but might clog up your drainage, and cause the containers to get water logged. Stick with the sand and keep adding organic matter to eventually have what is basically top soil. Go to a landscaper, and see if they will sell you bulk pine bark mix. Most landscapers use this to prepare planting beds. Around here, the bulk supplier actually sold a pulverized pine bark, that had sand added to the mix especially for landscapers. Understand, that pine bark is high acid ph, and will need to be amended with dolomite pelletized lime. An artificial soil mix will have very little in the way of nutrients, so you will have to add commercial fertilizer, or organic manure. I prefer organic for my food producing garden, but sometimes it's hard to do it right so I'll use a Miracle Grow type hose on application. Here is a link.

https://www.amazon.com/Hozon-Siphon...1533478425&sr=8-1&keywords=hozon+siphon+mixer

 

[kyrsyan]

Not seeing a need for clay. Peat moss is pretty good at retaining moisture. Or the stuff I use is. I'd add compost. If it just looks like peat moss but you're not sure it is. Then I'd get peat most and compost, mix them in a wheelbarrow and then add to your existing soil. That will add natural water retention and nutrients. Most of my potted plants are a mix of compost, peat moss, generic soil, and vermeculite/small foam. Works wonderfully.

 

[Martinhouse]

Thanks for the suggestions. There is still enough left of my long growing season that I might try various things in a few different containers. Then I'll know what I should do to all the containers so they'll be ready for next spring.

 

[20Gauge]

Not seeing a need for clay. Peat moss is pretty good at retaining moisture. Or the stuff I use is. I'd add compost. If it just looks like peat moss but you're not sure it is. Then I'd get peat most and compost, mix them in a wheelbarrow and then add to your existing soil. That will add natural water retention and nutrients. Most of my potted plants are a mix of compost, peat moss, generic soil, and vermeculite/small foam. Works wonderfully.

Any time I deal with clay, things die. Better off with Peat moss or some other soil.

 

[China Connection]

It is the top 4 to 6 inches that one has to worry about. So just top dress over the clay with a good organic mix and plant close enough to shade the soil from sun and wind.

 

[20Gauge]

It is the top 4 to 6 inches that one has to worry about. So just top dress over the clay with a good organic mix and plant close enough to shade the soil from sun and wind.

Not here. You need to go 15-18 inches at least. The problem is our high levels of rain. It doesn't drain very well and then kills the plants or stunts their growth. It really depends upon the area you grow in. Best plan is to do without the clay and get decent soil.

 

[China Connection]

You could get blue metal that they use on roads. I buy what they call crusher dust and mix it with an organic mix. By the sound of things if you did a six-inch mix then got a backhoe and ripped the clay with this mix on top it should help brake thigs up. Organic matter does not last long but Basalt crusher dust does.

 

[Martinhouse]

This clay I'm asking about is for improving the awful bagged soil I bought to fill my half-barrel containers. I found out the hard way that the stuff is mostly sand and it simply did not hold water at all. My plan is to replace about half of it with a mix of dirt skimmed from the chicken run, mixed with a little of the bad dirt, and some compost and a small bag of clay litter. There will also be a bag of good potting soil, some that I know grows things very well. It will be well blended in the wheelbarrow before I put it back into each container.

The sandy stuff I leave on the bottom of the containers can act like drainage gravel. If I lose a little each time there is a heavy rain out of the one half-inch drain hole down at the bottom near the ground, it will be easy to scoop up and return to the container, since the new garden is set up on a leveled spot that I covered with old discarded semi-truck tarps.

 

[China Connection]

If I am going for maximum time with a mix for pots I use about half, half road crusher dust with coconut fiber. Coconut fiber takes the longest to break down. To fertilize I use fresh chicken manure and hydropic salt.

For a big area, I use a local organic mix. They add commercial fertilizer at an added on price if one wants it.