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Dry clay soil in summer
Dennis Dobson
Posts: 51
Hi i have an area of the garden that has dryish clay soil in summer,owing to a large tree about 6 metres away .can any one advise me on which largish shrubs might grow there. the area is west facing in full sun cheers
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we have this, very wet in winter, bone dry and cracked in summer, roses,roses,roses, and a lot of the cornus (dogwood) family, they love it.A large tree wont give you clay soil, you either have it or you dont.
The large tree will make it dry and hard for other roots to penetrate deeply to get the soil and nutrients they need but clay is fertile so you just need to make it easier for plants to get in and grow.
Dig over as much as you can to at least a spade's depth and break up the soil below that with a fork so roots can penetrate more easily and you don't create sump holes that collect water and rot roots. Throw on barrow loads of good garden compost and/or well rotted manure and fork over to mix it up. Let it settle for a day or so.
Plant roses making sure the graft union is an inch or two below soil level. Philadelphus should do well there too and, if the area is sheltered from scorching winds, Japanese maples in the shade of the tree.
The RHS offers this advice on preparing clay soils for planting - https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=305
My back garden border was created when next door removed thier hedge and it’s that special kind of clay with tree roots in it. I dumped a load of roses there last year as a holding space for doing it properly this year and they really struggled because I did nothing to improve the soil at all. You must must get the feeder pellets for shrubs and roses (works on everything) and manure it properly or nothing will grow.
You have alkaline soil. if you have any builders rubble or hardcore in there you have pockets of even more alkaline, and if you are looking in book or the internet you treat it as if It’s chalky clay.
Thanks everyone for your input. Have already worked lots of manure and compost into the area and have some roses growing there that are not doing badly.but there is one part which is about 3 metres by about 1.5 that every thing seems to struggle in .might try eleagnus angustifolia in there that seems pretty tough cheers everyone
Crab apples can be remarkably resilient. I'd probably go with philadelphus, as Ob suggests. Eleagnus is a good call - they can get very big when they are happy
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Sorry nanny i meant that the soil was dry in summer because of tree roots taking up all the moisture , not that it was turning the soil clay