I agree. While it's always helpful to add manure/compost etc, you can't fundamentally change your conditions and, almost more importantly, your climate. Dry areas can't replicate regular rainfall, and vice versa. Manure and leaf mould are good for helping retain moisture, so that's helpful as it will mean less watering for those plants you have which might need a little more. Particularly good if you're charged extra on a meter for water, which I think is pretty standard in England and Wales.
If you grow anything in pots [annuals of any kind] use the spent compost from those too, after they're done.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Agree - no point trying to change alkaline to acid but sandy, stoney or chalky soils will be improved just by having all the extra micro-organisms that come with adding fibrous matter and clay soils, already fertile, will have their consistency improved and fertility unlocked by the additions.
You can do it all in one go as Beth Chatto did when creating her "Dry Garden" - excellent book - out of a former car park or you can do it gradually according to your means and availability of composted material. If you do plant new things, do the soil prep in advance and they will romp away and need little intervention afterwards once established.
There are plenty of plants that like well drained, chalky soil - cytisus, gaillardia, eryngium, armeria, Russian sage, oenothera, lavender, some of the shrubby salvias, verbena hastata, thymes, annual poppies, valerian, some of the species tulips, nepeta, agastache, acanthus, phlomis tuberosa, eleagnus "Limelight" for shrubs and koelreutaria forms for small trees.
Guess who's been researching plants for poor, dry soils! We have a lot of it at the back of the house and want to improve the view from the kitchen and terrace as well as pollinator habitat if we can.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
This is Peter Korn's garden, he grows on beds of pure sand. Poor soil is the gardener's friend (if you want to grow lots of beautiful drought loving perennials that do not flop or swamp each other)
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
I bet there's some flopping invisible to the camera And judging on the misty atmosphere taken very early in the morning. We all have to learn to use a bit less water but the current fetishisation of dry gardens is a bit boring to me...being Greek have seen enough dry land to last me a lifetime.
Beth Chatto did a cracking job on her dry garden but I do really dislike the bare, barren, straggly looking dry gardens - Provence style - that have featured at Chelsea Flower Show in recent years. Utterly dreary.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Beth Chatto's dry garden is a former car park so the soil would have been very compacted as well as poor and dry and having some huge trees round the edges. Loads of prep has paid dividends tho and, despite often having only 20cms of rain a year, it is thriving.
I took loads of photos when we visited it in May 2016 but need to dig them out and re-size before posting.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Beth Chatto did a cracking job on her dry garden but I do really dislike the bare, barren, straggly looking dry gardens - Provence style - that have featured at Chelsea Flower Show in recent years. Utterly dreary.
I love it. It's no good if you want to grow prize roses but I really like Nigel Dunnett's 'steppe' style plantings. They're certainly livening up Sheffield's city centre at the moment. Even if you don't like the intermingled 'undesigned' style, you can draw from them which plant species are tolerant of these sorts of growing conditions.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
These pics below stop my breathe. Oh, I wish I the space. I wonder how @Jellyfire is getting on with his wild planting. Designs very much after my own heart (though not a standard euphorbia fan).
Posts
Manure and leaf mould are good for helping retain moisture, so that's helpful as it will mean less watering for those plants you have which might need a little more. Particularly good if you're charged extra on a meter for water, which I think is pretty standard in England and Wales.
If you grow anything in pots [annuals of any kind] use the spent compost from those too, after they're done.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
You can do it all in one go as Beth Chatto did when creating her "Dry Garden" - excellent book - out of a former car park or you can do it gradually according to your means and availability of composted material. If you do plant new things, do the soil prep in advance and they will romp away and need little intervention afterwards once established.
There are plenty of plants that like well drained, chalky soil - cytisus, gaillardia, eryngium, armeria, Russian sage, oenothera, lavender, some of the shrubby salvias, verbena hastata, thymes, annual poppies, valerian, some of the species tulips, nepeta, agastache, acanthus, phlomis tuberosa, eleagnus "Limelight" for shrubs and koelreutaria forms for small trees.
Guess who's been researching plants for poor, dry soils! We have a lot of it at the back of the house and want to improve the view from the kitchen and terrace as well as pollinator habitat if we can.
I took loads of photos when we visited it in May 2016 but need to dig them out and re-size before posting.