Daily gardening tip · Northern hemisphere · Tuesday 6 October 2026 · mid autumn
Dig Manure into Clay Before Winter
Digging heavy clay soil now allows the upcoming winter weather to do the hard work of improving your garden's texture for you.
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Clear any weeds and dead plants from the surface of your clay soil bed.
Spread a layer of well-rotted organic manure about five to ten centimeters deep over the soil.
Use a spade to dig the manure into the soil, turning over large clods of clay.
Leave the dug soil surface rough and cloddy instead of smoothing it out.
Why it works
Leaving the clay soil in rough, open chunks exposes more surface area to the elements. When water trapped inside the wet clay clods freezes during winter, it expands and naturally breaks the heavy clumps apart, leaving you with a fine, crumbly soil structure by spring.
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