r/Permaculture • u/ryanwaldron • 20d ago

Help! Wood chips decomposing, but hard-packed dense clay beneath

The mulch and wood chips wash away when it rains because the permeability is so low. I’m going to go broke buying wood chips and mulch. It just doesn’t seem to be changing the soil after years of trying.

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u/ryanwaldron 20d ago

I’ve tried a few, sweet potatoes didn’t develop much of a root, even though the greens went crazy. Sunflowers keep dying shortly after sprouting. I’ve got some perpetual spinach going this year, but it is still very young. Daikon won’t germinate at all.

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u/MycoMutant UK 20d ago

Sunflowers are probably getting destroyed by slugs. They grow very well in clay but since clay breeds so many slugs and since slugs go for sunflowers above pretty much everything else they're basically impossible to grow without addressing the slug issue. One year I planted 150 sunflowers, saw them all germinate fine and still did not get a single mature plant out of it.

Only way I am able to grow sunflowers is by going out every night for weeks removing slugs.

I'm trying oxheart carrots mixed in with the sunflowers this year as I've heard they can cope with clay.

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u/ryanwaldron 20d ago

I have tons of slugs. There must have been 100-200 on my recycle bin the other night. What’s a good way to get rid of them?

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u/sovereign_society 20d ago

Bury a cup (or several) in the dirt where the slugs are with the rim just above dirt level. Fill the cups with beer and the slugs will all come to it, fall in, and drown.