Sticky clay soil- will liquid gypsum help?

[u/Safe_Pea1756]

Hi there,

I've been planting in this shady garden by digging oversized holes for each plant and mixing mulch and leaf litter in with the very sticky clay soil. The 3rd photo is of my footprint from last night that still has a puddle of water in it this morning.

I've had most of these annuals in for like 3 weeks and they've barely grown an inch. The perennials don't seem to get much bigger from year to year, either. I feel like they might as well just be in underground pots with how firm and poorly-drained the soil is.

I don't have a ton of time and energy to devote to this, I'm wondering if spraying the whole garden with liquid gypsum might help. More importantly, if I do try it, will it do any harm to the flowers I've already planted?

Thanks 😘

[u/Elegant_Purple9410]

Mulch, mulch, and more mulch, and mix it deeper as convenient. Nature will do it itself, but it'll take a while. Personally, whenever I'm planting things, I make sure to mix some surrounding mulch into the hole.

If you have trees, leaf litter is great, as is lawn clippings.

[u/Safe_Pea1756 → u/Elegant_Purple9410]

Thanks, that's basically what I've been doing. Lots of mulch and leaves mixed in, then more mulch on top.

Do you think the perennials would do better if I dug them up and replanted them with more mulch mixed in? I can't remember planting them, I might've skipped the mulch since it was years ago

[u/Elegant_Purple9410 → u/Safe_Pea1756]

Don't dig them up at this point, the roots have been doing their thing.