Ok, see what you soil gurus here can make of this. I've been disappointed that I haven't hit clay yet in my new pond. We were only about 5 feet deep though, so I dug deeper, about 8 feet or so and hit some 'clumpier' stuff. It's not red, it's very black, but it's very hard and doesn't crumble. I've heard of a few soil tests to see how it holds up against water and I tried one out this afternoon.
I took a bucket of water and a ball of 'clay', slightly smaller than a baseball and put it in the bucket of water for 15 minutes.
Right before I put the ball into the bucket. Didn't realize there was a shadow over the ball so I'm sorry the picture isn't very clear.
Right after putting the ball into the water.
The ball after 15 minutes. The water was still clear.
I broke the ball open and here's what the insides looked like if that matters. It was dry so the water had not soaked in.
I do have a source of red clay. A friend of ours who has built 3 ponds just up the road has said we can have as much as we want. But it'd obviously be much easier if we already had some on site.
What do you think? Good, bad, ok, but get the tested red clay anyway?
Here's the corresponding thread for my pond.
