Plant Combo for Clay Soil

Soil amending costs time and money! Selecting the right plants that can thrive in clay soil can make the difference between having a successful landscape and having unhealthy plants. In this video, I share a great plant combo that can do well in clay soil and create a nice cohesive aesthetic for the garden. These are all fairly low maintenance plants as well and are incredibly easy to grow.

For those interested, I also have links below of equipment used in my video production:

Echium fastuosum (Pride of Madeira) is a large bold shrubs with massive conical flowers. They are super easy to grow and very drought tolerant. Echium does well on the coast, however make sure it doest spread into unwanted areas as it has the potential to become invasive in coastal regions.

Agave americana (Century Plant) is another plants that does incredibly well in clay and other poor soils. Its extremely low maintenance and very easy to grow. It's dusty blue gray foliage makes it a wonderful accent plant to attract the eye in the garden.

Achillea (Yarrow) is small perennial that also can thrive in clay conditions. It brings vibrancy and life to the landscape with it's prolific blooms... and they come in so many different colors! My favorite is Achillea Moonshine, but there are also other great varieties like Paprika Yarrow and Woolly Yarrow. Can't go wrong with these!

Perovskia (Russian Sage) is right up there among my favorites. I can do well in clay, and provides a blast of lavender color blooms in the Spring and Summer. They are very drought tolerant and deciduous during the cold months.

Last but certainly not least is Hemerocallis (Daylily). These are notorious for growing in poor soils which is what makes them so popular. They can be planted in poor conditions but will still produce a bounty of colorful blooms year after year.

I hope this video helps spark some ideas for your landscape.

Happy planting!

Dom

#budgetplants #onlinenursery #buyplantsonline

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Music Credits

Original Intro
Dominic Masiello

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[IBMikmaq]

Buy a bunch of Daikon radish seeds and plant them in the summer and then leave the radish which is shape like a carrot in the soil all winter and let it rot and naturally add compost to the soil.

[alyssa]

I have such dense clay, I could probably make some pottery with it. The builders took all the topsoil out and then hid the remaining clay under about 2” of bark mulch and sod.

[slvrlady]

Thanks for your expertise. I struggle with very heavy clay soil in my yard, so it's great to have some easy options.

[nicolasbertin]

Achilleas are not small, if you try achillea filipendulina it reaches 1.2 meter. For clay, plenty of perennials adapt well : echinops, eupatorium, thalictrum, almost all asters, veronica, veronicastrum... The real difficulty is when you have clay soil AND dry summers. For that, echinops, eryngium and achillea filipendulina are the best. Agastache can work but it's short lived, so not ideal.

[mplslawnguy]

Clay soil is hard to work with mechanically, but it’s good to grow in for most things. Lots of nutrients available and retains water much better than sandy soils. I have never been limited in my planting because I have clay soil. pH is the only thing that has eliminated the possibility of planting a few things. Trees, shrubs and perennials all do great in my heavy clay.

[freedomofreligion]

Our clay here is vivid rust red. I think the "red" coloration comes from the oxidation of iron in the soil.

There's talus all over the natural landscape where I reside. The "bluff" my home is built in the shadow of, has talus poured out all over it.

It's also constantly dug up during every housing development.

The talus, "lava rock" is black; it was "magma" when liquid rock under the earth's crust.

It has dozens of air holes, much like a sponge.

[bigtomatoplantslover]

Wow Lovely Flowers ^^
Like 79
My friend, thank you for good sharing

[MariMari-vqhl]

I typically dismiss day lilies but my ears perked up when you said “evergreen” 😂

[lorileo]

I have heavy red clay and since I have no idea how to garden I've killed so many plants. This will be my third try, thank you for this information.

[alaskansummertime]

That Century plant grows wild in Hawaii lava fields. I walked into a thicket of it and it almost took me out. I can vouch for yarrow. I've got 20 acres of Alaskan clay soil and its growing wild everywhere.

[mlockette]

I also have beautiful bee balm growing on my clay soil. It is doing well.

[zombie_snax]

A great cheap way to amend- when you see the power company or tree trimers in your area. Tell the workers they can dump their wood chips on your property. Especially with tree trimmers, their usually happy to have somewhere close to dump. Let them pile it up . then just grab a wheel barrel and spread it around. Around 2 years to decompose but then you have an amazing start and Zero dollars invested.

[Chicahcah]

We’ve had good luck with a bottle brush buckeye in our somewhat clay soil. We also have a redwood dawn that is doing so well. Everything else is an experiment!

[ginonunes]

Any tips for heavy clay soil + large wet seasons? I cant really find that many chanels for the stupid uk weather... My best plant was persicaria affinis which creates a good layer of foliage/compost but i want more variety 😭

[therapywithisabel]

I thought I had non draining mud. Local conservationist came out to confirm I have non draining clay. It's muddy and gray though :P

[aprildegele]

We have very obvious clay soil in the form of rocks that have formed over time and are now coming down our hill. Clay isn't always like Playdough. We have red clay in rock form as well as silt form that just slides off of our hill in large amounts all of the time. I live in the PNW, so rain is an issue. This red clay is killing me! Trying to find a fast growing plant that will either climb or go down a pretty sheer bit of land is hard. Planting it is harder because the ridges on which we could plant are unstable. What I need is a seed that will take hold quickly and grow down the cliff of a hill we have and lock in the clay "rocks' that come down every year. The only thing I've found is creeping phlox. But how fast will that grow to keep the hill from eroding more? We could use some kind of matrix for a climbing vine, but the hill is so unstable I don't know that the pins will hold any matrix we lay down.
SO frustrating.
We also have poison oak and blackberries we need to get rid of, as well as deer that eat everything but the blackberries unless it's the last food they have, They eat ivy of all kinds, poison oak (yes, poison oak), and anything that doesn't smell strongly, which is why I'm planting all kinds of herbs in my garden.
I need something that smells strongly that the deer won't eat and will grow down an almost sheer cliff.
Any suggestions?

[stevecharters]

Agave Americana - vicious spikes that prevent you getting close and invasive suckers that come up even meters away from the parent plant.

[nk]

I got a red clay instead of soil :-) We got rabbits and move them around. The red clay is slowly becoming darker. Worms are fat and happy in the droppings :-)

[RVBadlands]

I have extreme black/brown color clay soil and the problem I get is oxalis it’s hard to get rid of. Do you have any ideas how to get rid of it. I am in zone 9B 50 miles north of Sacramento. I want to have a more of a Mediterranean garden since I have a Spanish style home. Would it be ok to add amendments, pumis, and DG to the soil. I am raising the beds higher due to the soil type.

[denisewall]

We grow giant beautiful Russian sages in zone3-4 in Northern Montana