Anyone used straw bales?
They are brill wrapped in plastic butterfly netting tied or zip tied and stood on the narrow side .. soak them in liquid manure , cover in weighted plastic sheet , keep them wet with the liquid manure till they start to rot then stop the liquid manure Snip planting holes through the butterfly netting & set in small potted plants .
Through out the growing season do try & keep them damp & give a mild liquid tomato type feed about once every 5 days
Strawberries , curbits , lettuce & potatoes do very well in these bale beds . At the end of the season you'll also have some darn good high quality home made compost to add to your garden that will help break down the clays .
Breaking clay into some thing useful . This place we now live in is covered in blue coal mine spoil clay .. It's very acidic & according to most locals " Wont grow anything
" .
For the first three years annually in summer & winter before it got to wet or too dry r I added dry powder builders gypsum plaster sprinkled on the clay @ 1Kg to 1 sq mtr then rotor-till it in . ( I managed to get six , either split or out of date bags from the local builders merchants for a fiver ) .
This helps " crumb the clay" to make it workable , adding your home made straw & liquid manure based compost at the same time will give you some outstanding beds in a couple of years .
You will however need to be watchful of crop rotation & putting root crops in the beds being improved like this , for fresh manure based compost tends to make the roots fork .
I also added 4 inches of washed sharp sand per sq mtr all over my lawns & ground level bed areas & again rototilled it in .
This time round I hired a large petrol tiller & put the tines a good 15 inches down in the soil, by the fifth pass over the whole area . ( I used 4 tonne of sharp in all ) .