Julianne Here in central Georgia, most of the growing area is red clay that can bake hard as a rock if unshaded. BUT. It's very fertile. Your gumbo clay is just as fertile but apparently it's "stickier" and is more difficult to aerate so adding organic matter is always recommended. I put compost and old bucketsful of planting mix directly on top of the clay and don't till it in. It keeps the clay beneath moist and friable. I do mix things up in the planting holes when I set out plants that I know will have burrowing roots such as tomatoes and melons. Haven't had a problem with the roots suffocating from the "basin effect" (a hole of friable soil not draining because of the clay around it) because we've been in drought for several years. I also heavily mulch around the plants with cardboard and leaves -- that brings earthworms in by the thousands. Eventually, slowly, the upper compost, mulch, and the clay beneath blend. The advice about having as much depth to a raised bed as you can manage is good advice, given the nature of the soil beneath. I think earthworm activity would be very beneficial, so you might want to put corrugated cardboard (provides some air spaces in the corrugations) directly on top of the clay soil and add compost or leaves on top of that in areas between plants. If kept moist, the cardboard should disintegrate in one season by chomping earthworm activity, and then you'll have at least an inch or two of the subsoil more friable and/or aerated. With careful management of raised beds, the subsoil also gradually improves, out of sight and mind!

These simple soil tests have helped many people over the years get the soil they have into a good healthy soil. Working on getting the soil into a good healthy condition does not, as Prof. Chalker-Scott states, imply the soil you have now is unhealthy. Soils lacking adequate amounts of organic matter just are not as healthy as they could be. 1) Soil test for organic matter. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains’ too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy.

We live in Oklahoma, and have clay soil. My solution has been to take a pick ax, dig down at least a foot, remove the clay, then before putting in anything, take that axe and work up the remaining clay. Once the remaining clay has been stabbed and torn, put in some top toil or compost. THis is for drainage, and the added soil will never never combine with the clay. Once you have this part of the bed prepared, you have a hole that is at least 12 inches deep. Put in good top soil with some compost mixed in it. (Pure compost will create a swimming pool, and kill any plants.) Once you have filled the hole, water it, stomp on it, then continue filling higher and higher. Put in some plastic or metal around the sides of the bed that will hold the soil, and continue building it up. Again water and stomp. When you plant your roses, make them very very high. THey will begin to sink, but start with them high. You are planting in a modified raised bed. Little by little as time goes by, you will know when to add compost, and you will watch the drainage. If you need to display one rose, follow this process, and pretend that you are preparing a bed for 5 roses. The clay will begin mixing in with the top soil ----- never. As least never in the years we have been here, and that is since 1979. Peat moss will become as dry as a brick, and also will not mix well. This may not be true if you live in a wet area, but in Oklahoma, I don't use peat moss. If what I have written will not work for you, you might try putting in small rock under the 12 inches you have dug. Once you have prepared you bed and roses, you would need a good amount of mulch to also protect your plants. Be sure to be scientific with your watering, and I think you will be fine. Scientific with watering means that you should find an area to dig where there are not roses, and watch from time to time what the water effect is in that area. The clay that you remove can be a good product to use to border your beds. I hope this helps, Sammy

Well, Louisianagal, you've inspired me. I've decided I'm not going to till, and I made a spectacle of myself at WalMart last night, pointing to "one of that" and "two of those, please, thanks" to the poor scrawny garden center greeter who had to carry six 40 lb. bags-o-stuff to my car. I wish there had been room in the car to carry him home to help me get them out. Anyway, I have 2 bags topsoil, 2 bags organic humus, one bag organic compost, 2 bales of 2 cubit ft. sphagnum peat moss, almost 3 bags of MiracleGro garden soil (bought when I thought I would till), more than half a bale-o-straw, lotsa newspapers and am going out now for more straw and cardboard. Whew! Worked up a sweat just TYPING it. Now another question (yes, really). My tomato seedlings are just at 6" and under, and I have 23 of them (Burpee heirloom rainbow variety pack, 6 different kinds, all indeterminate, I think). It'll be quite a while yet before I need to transplant, so if I start layering NOW, will my garden be ready to recieve the plants in 2 or 3 weeks? Will 12" of layers be enough, considering that, at transplanting time, it will have gone down? My thinking is that after 2 weeks or so, the bottom layer (cardboard and/or newspaper) should be sufficiently broken down enough to allow me to 1) dig past it into the native lawn, dump a trowel full of humus or compost, drop peat pot, then re-cover with my layers and mulch (I bought a little bulb planter tool this week for that very reason); or 2) if the layers are deep enough to NOT need to dig through the cardboard, the growing roots will break through the cardboard and thrive in the soil underneath. As I stated before, I have LOADS of earthworms, so I imagine they'd do ok, and my sweet corn seedlings(which I started inside in peat pots) were set directly into holes I had dug into my sod, with only a bit of mushroom compost in the hole and covered with wet newspaper and straw, and they're doing great...I haven't even top dressed them since I put them in about 3 weeks ago. I'm having to deal with the surrounding grass poking up around the hole, as I did not smother heavily enough, I'm correcting that now. In the same plot, several holes-in-the-ground to the north, bush beans, same story...looking good, but I'm trying to clear and smother. Dang me and my rambling. Sorry. Oh, and one other thing (yeah, I do that, I know). I just read on another site (or this one) someone's comment about the bottom layer of a lasagna garden...poster said that cardboard breaks down better than newspaper, "according to those who lasagna garden". Has anyone heard that? I haven't. TWO other things (I lied). When my layering's done, I plan to cover with black plastic (the kind found in the paint supplies department, not breathable), as I heard that it will "bake the lasagna", so to speak, to speed up breakdown. Any thoughts, anyone? I'll remove the plastic before planting. If air supression is deemed a problem, I can run my garden weasle over it for holes. I'd appreciate any and all opinions. Louisianagal, if you're reading this, I would like to hear of the arbor your hubby made for you. Thanks for letting me run on (and on, and on...) Joyce P.S. .... (just kidding...)