Breaking the clay

Stop being a slave to your garden

Contrary to popular belief, clay is actually a brilliant base for growing gardens. Once clay is opened up for drainage and aeration, it can become a thriving playground for beneficial soil microbes. Unfortunately, the advice we are given is to dig in gypsum. The use of gypsum is an old agricultural practice dating back to the 1880s, used to leach sodium from dispersive sodic clay soils, or clay that is highly erosive and that almost dissipates in water.

Gypsum is not technically a clay breaker as it does not work on hard compacted plasticine-type clays. In fact, too much can create what is known as gypsiferous conditions, which can cause crusting and hardpan compaction.