Question: My soil doesn’t seem to dry ever. I’m assuming it’s clay, though I don’t remember my soil having that much clay. I did add a little bit of topsoil or garden soil with the dirt that was ready in the ground. The stuff grows in it but not that well. I was just wondering what I could do? Last year was the first year with that garden bed in the ground. – Jade G.

Answer: Hi, Jade! That’s a great question. So glad you reached out!

Based on your question, there may be a couple of things happening. The first is that your soil may indeed have more clay than you thought, but it might be deeper down than you can see. A good place to start is to first do a Soil Jar Test to see how much clay, sand, silt, and organic matter you have. Check out this week’s blog on the Soil Jar Test we created to help you.

It’s also possible that you have what’s called a “textural interface.” A textural interface is where two distinct layers of soil types exist. Because water percolates at different rates through different soil textures, water can back up where soils with different textures meet. This often happens in new gardens because the soil just isn’t uniform enough or the uniformity isn’t deep enough.

Whether you have a textural interface or your soil has too much clay or both, adding organic matter into your soil can help. The fastest way to do this is to add more organic matter and work it deeper into the soil. Depending on how deep you need to go will depend on what strategy you use. You can use the Double Dig Method, if you need to get deep into the soil. You can also gently work the added organic matter in, if you don’t need to go quite as deep. While these methods are faster, they take a lot of manual labor.

Alternatively, you can use cover crops to do the work for you. To get deep into the soil, try a cover crop of sunflowers or other cover crop plant variety that has a tap root. At flowering time, chop the plants up all the way down to the base. Leave the roots in the ground to decompose and leave the top parts of the plant on the top of the soil, gently working it into the top 6″ of soil or so.

For more information on increasing your soil health and drainage, I recommend registering for the Joyful Gardener Docuseries. It’s a totally FREE online event happening February 20-27, 2024. It’s a comprehensive 8 video series on starting a garden. If you’re interested, you can register here.

I hope that helps, Jade!