Beauty & the Beast

Beauty has to fall in love with the Beast just the way he is before he can be transformed into the highly desirable guy of her dreams. Um now, you may be wondering how this relates to gardens and you may be even more surprised when I tell you that this fairy tale is happening right outside your back door.

I am talking about clay soil - the Beast. If you've tried digging deep you'll know what I mean and you'll probably know that large swathes of South West England are covered in clay soil. Difficult to work, heavy, slow to warm up and if left unimproved will spell certain death for many relationships with plants.

Okay, so the key is to love the soil just the way it is, and this means...
Rule 1 - Doing some research - Don't try to grow plants that need well drained soil.
Rule 2 - Developing True Grit - Get plenty of sand and/or grit dug into it over a year or so, or certainly when adding new planting.
Rule 3 - Learning Patience - It's going to take time for your garden to grow beautifully because it takes time to love the beast just the way it is.

But when you do, something wonderful happens, because of all the soil-types clay is potentially the most fertile and some of the most beautiful and productive gardens have been crafted on clay.

If you have a garden problem or garden design question, why not POST it here in comments and I will get back to you.