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Would you rather have heavy clay soil or very sandy soil?

 
Matt McSpadden
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Here is a good one from Jay. If you like these, search for "Would you rather". We are getting quite a collection going.

Would you rather have heavy clay soil or very sandy soil?

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Matt McSpadden
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I have only ever lived where the soil is clay. So I'm going to stick with the familiar and go with clay soil.

"When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind." C.S. Lewis
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Timothy Norton
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I have had experience with clay, not with sand. Just due to that, I would stick with clay. It can be a bit of a bear but if you plan out how you will amend it, it works great.

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Joe Hallmark
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I’d rather clay. I love ponds. I have clay/gravel/rock on my current property except where my pond is lol. It’s mostly rock with just enough clay to “work”. Tho the dam and the core are good clay. I have no idea how long it takes to turn sand good. But a onetime addition of around 8-10” of wood chips 2.5years ago my perrenial garden section looks great. Just don’t mind the big rocks when you dig :)

If the county will ever get back to chipping I definitely need more chips. I get small amounts when I borrow a large chipper from my neighbor but I only have small amounts of limbs or trees to remove so it’s not enough to cover an entire section just beds here and there.

My old property was clay too without the gravel and rocks. It just feels right.
 
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I had Sandy soil in MN and clay soils here in southern Il.   Even with the better weather here, my garden was much better in MN with the Sandy soil.  The serious downside I found to Sandy soil is that it had better rain every 3 days.

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Jay Angler
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Considering my ecosystem is known for long summer droughts, I'll take the clay soil! We also tend to get heavy winter rains which in sandy soil would wash the nutrient building away.

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C. Letellier
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Depends on what is under it and what I am trying to do with it.  I have some friends on sand.  They can open the full irrigation ditch on the field and basically make all that water simply disappear forever in certain parts of that field.  Since I live in a very water short area and have lived with clay basically my last nearly 50 years so I know many of the tricks I will say clay.  If I need sand the answer is to haul it in to certain raised beds and grow over the clay.

Country oriented nerd with primary interests in alternate energy in particular solar. Dabble in gardening, trees, cob, soil building and a host of others.

 
Sara Hartwin
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Going with clay - It's what I'm most familiar with! Also, I like that it has other potential uses.

Aspirations: She seeks wool and flax, considers a field and buys it, girds herself with strength, opens her mouth with wisdom, and does him good all the days of her life. (pieces of Proverbs 31, NKJV)

 
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Matt McSpadden wrote:Here is a good one from Jay. If you like these, search for "Would you rather". We are getting quite a collection going.

Would you rather have heavy clay soil or very sandy soil?



Clay, since it holds water better.

Sandy

Zone 6b, dry, high desert in New Mexico 7500' elevation

have you checked your new USDA Hardiness zone? Check here: https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/

 
Susan Boyce
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I have clay here now and it doesn't work well for plants to root, but sand is different, so many plants grow easily in it and its no problem pulling up anything. So I choose sand.
 
r ranson
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I live with glacial tilth which is basically 400plus feet of sandy rocks.  It's terrible for building soil as the orgaics break down and wash away.  

I would like to try clay as I hear it keeps a shape well enough I could make a raised area for a garden and alter the drainage by shaping the land.  

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Kendal Webster
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Where i live in northern Arizona, our soil is a silty loam... really it is quite a lot of sand and "blow dirt". It drains really fast, has very little native organic matter, and is it's own spcial type of difficult. Based off of my desire to build a pond and the lack of clay to seal one... right now I want clay.

That said,  where we've amended the soil with alpaca poo and a lot of water... things are growing and the dirt is slowly becoming more of a soil.

When I lived near Phoenix, we had a lot of clay and we grew an amazing garden with less effort up front and the soil improved quickly from the plant concentration and growth.
 
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