How to Plant a Flower Bed in Clay Soil | This Old House

This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook shares tips for successfully growing flowers in stubborn clay soil. (See below for a shopping list and tools.)
SUBSCRIBE to This Old House: bit.ly/Subscrib...
Shopping List for How to Plant a Flower Bed in Clay Soil:
- assorted potted plants
- expanded shale and compost
- river rocks
- hardwood mulch
Tools for How to Plant a Flower Bed in Clay Soil:
- garden fork and rotary tiller
- garden rake
- hose
- garden trowel
- soil separator
About This Old House TV:
This Old House is the No. 1 multimedia home enthusiast brand, offering trusted information and expert advice through award-winning television, a highly regarded magazine, and an information-driven website. This Old House and Ask This Old House are produced by This Old House Ventures, LLC and are presented on PBS by WETA Washington, DC.
Follow This Old House and Ask This Old House:
Facebook: bit.ly/ThisOldH...
Twitter: bit.ly/ThisOldH...
bit.ly/AskTOHTw...
Pinterest: bit.ly/ThisOldH...
Instagram: bit.ly/ThisOldH...
bit.ly/AskTOHIG
Tumblr: bit.ly/ThisOldH...
For more on This Old House and Ask This Old House, visit us at: bit.ly/ThisOldH...
How to Plant a Flower Bed in Clay Soil | This Old House
/ thisoldhouse

[@TNtoolman]

In Tennessee we have CLAY, not like their soil. I wish our clay soil was that easy to work with.

[@EzekielsCall]

me too! I just moved into a new place.. was all excited that they had planting areas in front of the porch. Bought some plants and started to dig only to find that the "soil" was like an inch deep if that, the rest is yellow clay - wet, thick, stuck together, sticks to the trowel clay. SMH This person's ^^ soil does look heavy, but it doesn't look near as heavy as the stuff I'm stuck with.

[@br9760]

Tennesee problems. Just spam compost until it looks like actual soil.

[@jayt717]

Right? 😂 At least in my property here in Nebraska, there are two kinds...hard clay that even a rototiller won’t break up, and sticky clay that water doesn’t penetrate. It’s very difficult to amend.

[@margaretmathis4775]

Porsche924Tim Same in Louisiana! I have NEVER seen a video that address the clay we have!

[@cathyc2665]

I'm in Texas and have icky , sticky clay soil also!! Just built up my flower bed with good quality soil and planted lily bulbs. 🤞🤞 hoping they come out good!!

[@WhatIsMisophonia]

Even when This Old House works with crap soil, it's still not crap lol. I'd like to see them come to Missouri and work with our lovely rocky red clay. Roger would stick his shovel into the soil and be like "nope" when the shovel stops at a half inch from the top and hits a giant rock. When I want nice soil, I create at least a slightly raised bed with some native soil, but also a large amount of compost often times a large amount of unfiltered sand with lots of fines in it which functions more like a silt/sand mixture.

[@jamiegray6285]

😹😹😹😹 Omg We grow our own rock here in AR, too! I have to use a pickax to get some of them out

[@WhatIsMisophonia]

@@jamiegray6285 It's nearly impossible to dig around here without a pick and a rock bar.

[@jamiegray6285]

@@WhatIsMisophonia - Same here! There’s also places I try to plant where they just dumped and spread out all of the gravel from building the house 20 years ago. I saw a video last night where they said plant plant plant because this is what’s going to amend your soil naturally. Everything I plant seems to do good so far, thank God

[@WhatIsMisophonia]

@@jamiegray6285 I wish we had more gravel and less clay or big interlocking rocks :\ Not only that, but the clay is alkaline and you can't hardly get it to acidify, specially if I use well water or city water, as both are also heavily alkaline. Soil sulfur doesn't do crap to my soil even when I use twice the amount, so I'm going rain water + muriatic acid.

[@jamiegray6285]

@@WhatIsMisophonia - Yeah, we have all of that, but the good thing is we have plenty of pine needles for that. At some point this winter I’ll take them up and put them on my azaleas and Rhododendrons. I’m hoping that works good enough because the additives are so expensive when you need a lot

[@mikeylikesit6588]

Dueling accents! I feel like I found the holy grail of toh

[@skripnigor]

Perfect southern accent

[@SmoothChino]

It's hard to understand him.

[@OrangeJackson]

"Shoot dang, ya'll."

[@ordinarychap1085]

That's not clay ...... And if it were you wouldn't want to be adding "water holding" materials.

[@kreed1004]

that is exactly right.

[@WhatIsMisophonia]

Not necessarily. Clay can certainly hold water, but it still gets hard as a rock in dry climates like, say, Texas. They want the soil broken up, but they still want it to store as much water as it can while being well draining.

[@HandmadeDarcy]

Exactly!

[@TheBanshee90]

Expanded clay is pretty cool stuff. It helps regulate moisture and aerate the soil. It retains less moisture than the clay would but will help prevent clay turning into ceramic when it drys out. It also improves drainage which will also help clay.

[@donbuffington4956]

Black clay wtf is that? REAL clay is red.

[@samikal4801]

Thanks for posting a video, here in Texas is kind of hard grow plants

[@Jimboo0825]

If they think that's clay soil, then they don't belong in landscaping

[@noname-nr4iy]

That's what I say.

[@rustybones99]

I thought the same thing.

[@evanpollard6225]

It is pronounced sol

[@kreed1004]

no it's sawl

[@duckmcnutty]

I live on this central Texas soil. Believe me, it’s clay as f***

[@ahoo5753]

I got clay so concentrated that you can make pot out of that crap. Also if you are building a house MAKE SUREyou tell the contractor to set a side the top soil ,then replace it,if you don't some times they just pack clay around the foudation,after the throw contractor trash in and cover it up.

[@kevinshackles3396]

"Roger while we finish forking" lol

[@jbm0745]

Never thought I'd hear a southern accent on This Old House. Love it!

[@straitpepperdiet]

these accents are awesome!

[@emilyhorton661]

My home here in Louisiana the clay is Red. My rototiller literally bounces on top of it. Thank you for the info tho. I’m going to try this to start some wildflowers.

[@donnabosela4580]

Did it bug anyone else that he couldn't remove the plastic plant identifier before planting it.... ? Lol

[@jolenebailey3821]

Thank you! I tried this method in my flower bed which was a lot of hard clay and it worked. It now has the best soil of all my gardens.

[@gijosephacoleman]

Don't neglect the well-defined edge!

[@sofosstudent]

They don’t know what they are going! They are flattening the ground ! Should use a board to distribute their weight!

[@hotrodharmon]

Thats not clay soil, ive been dealing with clay for the last few years and the best way ive found to get rid of clay or cover it up is a mix of saw dust, gypsum, and Utelite Soil Conditioner.

[@SmoothChino]

my biology recognized your biology and they didn't like each other. it's all about the biology.

[@winstonsmith11]

Nice

[@gigic5337]

Is there another name for expanded shale? I only see pea gravel, and ither decorative rocks at Home Depot and Lowes.

[@southbridgeforestHOA]

perlite or vermiculite are 2 other alternatives to expanded shale. people also have used volcanic rock or sand; only use any of these amendments with compost to ensure good drainage.

[@luisguevara3429]

3:45 cool....I didn't know that

[@NoStress90s]

they both sound like they are trying to hard with the accents, kinda embarassing a little bit

[@kaylee-w6b]

1000

[@staceybauer696]

that missing finger tho

[@Alejandro_C62]

Good catch! Rt hand. I work in an ER, those things never get reattached.

[@jasonchen7342]

i reckon you should simply change the soil..... my local price is $50/m3 for mixed garden soil....and spend $50 to hire a jack hammer with a clay spade...

[@Chuck59ish]

The less lawn the better.

[@autohelix]

I have red clay soil you should see my garden. You can grow in it just fine.

[@ArcanePath360]

Makes my flowerbed look like crap. Time to get tilling now!

[@sacdigitaldesignweb]

Wrong way of watering

[@yuhuachen2871]

Thank you

[@illmitchjax]

Plarnt theym rayt in duh naytiv soyul

[@EzekielsCall]

clay already retains a ton of water.. why would you mix compost into it? Clay tends to hold onto water, and to stay wet after a rain..

[@ofon2000]

If i'm understanding correctly, it's that compost retains the water so it's not "freely" floating around in the rest of the soil. Kind of like particles of a sponge I guess.

[@bluegrassdiggers9030]

When you add compost and till it in it changes the structure of the clay

[@aztekwarrior518]

Well I watched the video a while back and did what he said .. I've been watering for about a year and a half.. and wow I'm tired

[@CesarA365]

How much was your water bill?!?! Lol

[@kreed1004]

the quality in this old house lately...

[@venividivici4253]

Dig a ho

[@leviathonmonster]

I have heavier clay soil than this, will adding sand help?

[@leviathonmonster]

Also it's orange

[@frederickfrick2765]

a 50/50 sand & compost mix should do the job.

[@autohelix]

Never add sand never ever.

[@MinibiteTran]

What abouts sand& mulch?

[@autohelix]

Never add sand to clay. Never ever .

[@MinibiteTran]

@@autohelix OMG i dong know what to do you the only person saying that ,they told sand breathe clays the clay in my garden you would not believe it the colors is gray ish blue or yellow the worms short just 1centymeter poor them can't survived Thx for respond, 🦆

[@autohelix]

@@MinibiteTran I live in the south east red clay soil is part of life. The best thing to add to clay soil and sand is organic matter. Compost, cow manure, fine pine mulch, leaf and grass mixture. Add some organic pellet fertilizer.

[@MinibiteTran]

@@autohelix Thankssssssss so much for respond I got everything.....You listed I will do it then 🌻🦆💜

[@GD15555]

0:40 why is touching compost lol

[@c31979839]

It's compost, not manure.

[@stephs1476]

how do you till without a tiller though? we have an irrigation system and I am afraid to use a tiller and hit the system under, not sure how deep they buried everything

[@TheIVJackal]

I thought you want to bury the plant and inch or two below the level of the soil so that any moisture that does occur, falls into the plant. That's what they do in other dry places. If it's up higher, the water runs off and less of it stays on the plant.