Suggestions for rock hard clay soil

[jeanette01]

I'm trying to sat up some native & tropical garden beds.

I'm in SE Qld,my soil is ROCK hard clay literally can't turn it over have to dig my planting holes with the pick axe and fill the hole with organic compost.

Can anyone suggest something I can water into the clay soil to help break it up and repair the years of damage?

We've only recently moved in.

[Andy_Mann]

@jeanette01

I subscribe to OneYardRevolution on YouTube, & came across this vid about how his woodchipped pathways have become fully enriched over time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCtafUgoCX0

[Jewelleryrescue]

Hi Jeanette01 I killed a few trees and plants digging holes in clay and just filling them with organic compost. I am not saying you did this like my  rookie mistakes. What happens is clay can form a water bowl and they drown, raise the plants up in soil and compost out of clay 300mm min as a guide. Or used raised 300mm  garden beds if this suits. 

I also have super super hard clay tools bounce off it full swings, once I bent a matoch digging tool hitting my clay. Tip to dig first hard clay soak hard clay gradually with water 1 -2 days before hand but next problem will be clay sticking to tools so rinse in water periodically, Add more water leave over night if you want to go deeper. Digging fence post holes with auger half fill hole with water as lubricant before tools stick badly. Not all clay seams to  break down with gypsum test a lump in water jar if it remains  mostly intact and lumpy over 2 days forget gypsum. Gypsum responsive clay turns to mud layer  on bottom of jar. Instead worms worked great for me but slow 1 year.  I used thick 100mm  deep organic + animal poop mulch with some soil blend on top of clay a little digging top layer clay first 100mm deep speeds things up if you can the energy for digging then add  20 to 100 worms per  4m2 or bucket worms from another area or buy some.  Animal poop not always good for some trees and  plants so just use plant organics in that case. Worms start off in organic mix and will slowly add castings and dig holes into clay breaking down the clay mixing in organic layer. Add sugar cane mulch to keep soil moist for worms Or simply go raised garden beds and forget the clay underneath with  added soil of your preferance for instant garden with the plants and worms digging deeper over time. I hope this helps some one with super tough clay yards. Use the organic mixes other people here suggested as that is  taking care of the real workers the worms.

[EricL]

Hello @Jewelleryrescue

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. Thank you for joining the discussion.

Thank you very much for sharing your experience and know-how with the community. Rejuvenating hard clay soil is truly challenging and it takes a fair bit of time to bring it back into a usable state. Let me tag @jeanette01 to see if they've made any progress with the rock-hard clay soil. It has been quite some time and it would be interesting to know if they've managed to balance the soil.

Again, thank you for sharing your knowledge with the community.

Eric