Quote:
Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta
I miss growing tomatoes on Georgia clay!
You are welcome to it. In Atlanta, it is like gardening on top of a gigantic red brick. I have broken shovels and picks just trying to turn the soil. When I saved my pepper plants for winter, I found the ones growing on hard clay had roots that went down for one inch, then straight sideways. My raised beds are now full of leaf compost and horse manure, and the red clay is 12 inches down.
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I think we probably had the same clay - we were in Athens at the time. Not sure why we had such a different experience, but the reason I did the newspaper/wheat straw when I expanded the garden was just the reason you stated - the clay was like a gigantic brick, and I couldn't stomach the thought of turning it over any more. It really just started as an experiment to see if I could get anything to grow at all. But the worms worked the decomposing straw in so well that it improved very fast. And by the straw keeping the clay moist, it stayed soft and didn't dry and crack like the clay in the rest of the yard would. Was the area where your pepper plants grown mulched similarly? Without the straw, I think I would have had terrible results.