What to use for hard Georgia Clay?

Learn how improving your soil can lead to a better looking lawn
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icemanrrc
Posts: 4
Joined: May 15th, 2020, 6:28 am
Location: Carrollton, GA
Grass Type: Bermuda
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

What to use for hard Georgia Clay?

Post by icemanrrc » May 15th, 2020, 9:03 am

I’m looking for recommendations on what to use to loosen this hard Georgia clay soil. My lawn in some areas is so hard, I can’t get grass to grow or stay alive. I’ve tilled it, aerated and though it helps temporarily, as soon as it settles, it hardens back up. I’m looking for some sort of amendment/supplement/recipe I can either buy or mix myself to loosen it and help keep it from hardening back up.
Any recommendations? Thank you in advance for any info you can provide.

bpgreen
Posts: 3871
Joined: January 3rd, 2009, 2:28 am
Location: Utah (Wasatch Front)
Grass Type: Western, Streambank, Crested wheatgrass in front (with blue grama added in the heckstrips), sheep fescue in back; strawberry clovetr in both
Lawn Size: 3000-5000
Level: Experienced

Re: What to use for hard Georgia Clay?

Post by bpgreen » May 15th, 2020, 10:45 pm

Welcome.

Your best bet would be to read the sticky post on this forum about posting a soil test for interpretation and sending a sample to Logan labs to be interpreted by the experts here. There's no "magic bullet" ingredient that will fix your soil.

Also, if I remember correctly, you may be surprised to learn that most "Georgia clay" is actually mostly sand.

icemanrrc
Posts: 4
Joined: May 15th, 2020, 6:28 am
Location: Carrollton, GA
Grass Type: Bermuda
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: What to use for hard Georgia Clay?

Post by icemanrrc » May 16th, 2020, 5:22 pm

I’ve had a soil sample done by UGA, and from what I’ve read, if I understand correctly, they won’t help unless it’s from Logan. Idk.
Whether my soil is sand or clay, it’s hard as concrete.

bpgreen
Posts: 3871
Joined: January 3rd, 2009, 2:28 am
Location: Utah (Wasatch Front)
Grass Type: Western, Streambank, Crested wheatgrass in front (with blue grama added in the heckstrips), sheep fescue in back; strawberry clovetr in both
Lawn Size: 3000-5000
Level: Experienced

Re: What to use for hard Georgia Clay?

Post by bpgreen » May 17th, 2020, 1:06 am

You're correct that the soil gurus here will only interpret tests from Logan labs.

I'm a bit of a hypocrite telling you to get a soil test, because I've never gotten one. But I'm doing things differently from most here. I'm trying to convert my lawn to mostly native grasses, so the requirements are different from a traditional lawn.

I'm not very knowledgeable about soil chemistry, so I can't help a lot. But I can tell you a few things I did to help my soil.

When I bought my house, I'd get runoff from the sprinklers after about 5-10 minutes. I started running my sprinklers on 3 cycles. I'd run them until just before runoff would start, wait an hour and repeat, then wait another hour and repeat again. That let the water soak more deeply into the soil. I gradually increased the length of each cycle as the water could penetrate more deeply so the sprinklers could run longer before the water started running off. That also allowed me to water less frequently. Since it happened gradually, the grass also developed deeper roots.

If you're bagging your clippings, STOP. You need to increase the organic matter in your soil as much as possible. Go to Starbucks locations and ask for their grounds. Many Starbucks locations save them and give them out for free. They all used to, but some cities made them stop. Spread them on your lawn. They're a mild fertilizer, but probably better for increasing the organic content. Don't worry about spreading them too evenly. Just fling them around on the lawn.

If you drink coffee, spread those grounds on the lawn (unless they're k cups :). If you brew beer or know somebody who does, spread the spent grains.

Mow your tree leaves into the lawn instead of raking them up. Steal the bags of leaves your neighbors put out and mow them into the lawn.

Basically, add any organic matter you can into the lawn.

Doing these things won't help as much as getting a detailed analysis, but they'll give you a start. Maybe at some point, you can get a Logan labs test and get a plan worked up. Whatever other recommendations are in the detailed workup, they'll probably also include telling you to do whatever you can to increase the organic content of the lawn. The recommendations I made for the sprinklers will probably not be part of that plan, since it's mostly dinne for the soil chemistry. But getting your soil to the point where watering goes deeper is a good thing (and since the roots then go deeper, the organic matter increases).

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