My soil is 8.2 pH. There are a number of acid loving plants I know will do poorly - eg. blueberries - which I won't attempt to grow, but I don't know of anything in particular that prefers my soil over a neutral or slightly acidic.
It's interesting to read other people's experiences - thank you.
My first garden was on very dry, free-draining alkaline soil in Cambridgeshire. I quickly discovered that the Magnolia stellata (planted by the previous owner) wasn't happy unless I gave it chelated iron every year, but I could grow any vegetable by sticking the seed directly in the soil. (This was in 1975, an incredibly hot and dry summer.) The second garden was in the Pennines, with twice the annual rainfall, on acid clay with natural springs all over the place. Different problems but I think drainage was more important than pH. The third was in Northumberland, very windy, free-draining deep soil, mostly neutral to alkaline, lowish rainfall. Then back to the Pennines, good free-draining acid soil over clay & millstone grit, lots of rain, NE facing slope. It was there that I found I could grow anything which didn't mind quite a bit of shade - clematis next to blueberries, lavender & lilac in the sunniest bits, brassicas until we got club root (memo - don't buy veg plants from someone you don't know in the market...). Now my garden is on limestone and shale, with quite a lot of rain but mild winters, pH varying from 6 to 8. Everything grows enormous...
It keeps the mind alive, moving from place to place... we don't plan to move anywhere else though.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
Never done a test but my hydrangea is blue, azalea, rhodies and blueberries all do well.
I also grow almost all the other plants mentioned with no problems. But I have never managed to get aubretia or pinks to establish, though I have grown sweet williams successfully. Tried several times with D. carthusianorum to no avail. Maybe worth trying from seed, perhaps older plants are less adaptable?
@Blue Onion plants from what is known as the Garrigue in France will be much happier in your soil than in neutral or acid soil - https://www.cbrava.com/en/magazine/a-botanical-walk-through-the-maquis-and-garrigue/ altho most of these plants have developed to cope with good drainage too and will struggle in damper areas. As long as your soil is fertile and deep you can grow just about anything except known acid lovers such as rhodos, azaleas, blueberries.
I had deep, fertile alkaline loam in my Belgian garden and grew a wide range of plants. Clematis in particular like fertile alkaline soil but I did have to be careful about hardiness and avoid any that flowered in late winter/early spring as they were always frozen to death so no alpinas, macropetalas or montanas survived.
Here we have a range of soils including deep, fertile neutral loam in what was former pasture but also bands of volcanic stuff that sets like cement in dry spells and we keep finding piles of buried limestone from old buildings that have been demolished in the days when the house end of the plots was a settlement of many small dwellings and farm buildings. It's taken a while and lots of trial and error and, in the end, I think climate and rainfall are more important than soil type. Managing heat and drought is a whole new art.
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)."
My current garden was sheep pasture until we moved in 10 years ago. Heavy clay, high rainfall, native pH is around 5, lots of springs, north facing slope but quite sunny, very windy. I've had to do quite a bit of soil improvement to be able to grow decent purple sprouting. Still have trouble with sprouts (1 in 3 plants will die), can't get cauliflower to form a head and calabrese grows and forms small heads so usable but not going to win any prizes. On the other hand, raspberries and blueberries grow freely and very large and fruit very heavily. I've managed to keep three out of about 30 lavender plants alive with a lot of grit. They just die. But rosemary grows well and bearded iris are also good some years. Pulsatilla are growing well and flowering - not prolifically but steadily. Roses go absolutely bonkers (especially this year) but even rugosa roses die suddenly now and then. Apple trees are stunted (wind or acidity?) and suffer a bit with canker except one which is healthy as a butcher's dog and fruits its socks off every year. Lilac grow well and flower without adding lime, in the main. Erysimum and helianthemum grow and flower but tend to be short lived (3 or 4 years).
After early losses, I've learned to try one of something and see how it does. What the book says hasn't been a particularly reliable guide as to what will grow well here. It may be that because the drainage varies greatly, the springs move and my mulching efforts are a bit inconsistent, there is an overlying pattern of differences in the garden that means things that might not thrive everywhere will grow well in certain spots and sometimes only for a while and then they'll abruptly die (I usually find that a spring has appeared under them). But there are also some plants that are more adaptable in these conditions and are happy anywhere.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
My garden confuses me, soil tests show 8.5 which makes sense we have between 30 and 40cm of soil before you hit a flint gravel mix and under that is solid chalk, according to the last borehole that was dug here solid chalk starts at 50cm depth. BUT I have a huge and presumably very happy rhododendron in the front garden, it does a wonderful display of flowers every year, has someone really done a huge job digging it a hole and replacing the soil? Or does it simply not care that it's roots must be down into solid chalk. (the plant is 3m tall by 8m round, it's no baby)
Potatoes get scab, and cabbages love it, but strawberries etc also do fine.
Posts
My first garden was on very dry, free-draining alkaline soil in Cambridgeshire. I quickly discovered that the Magnolia stellata (planted by the previous owner) wasn't happy unless I gave it chelated iron every year, but I could grow any vegetable by sticking the seed directly in the soil. (This was in 1975, an incredibly hot and dry summer.) The second garden was in the Pennines, with twice the annual rainfall, on acid clay with natural springs all over the place. Different problems but I think drainage was more important than pH. The third was in Northumberland, very windy, free-draining deep soil, mostly neutral to alkaline, lowish rainfall. Then back to the Pennines, good free-draining acid soil over clay & millstone grit, lots of rain, NE facing slope. It was there that I found I could grow anything which didn't mind quite a bit of shade - clematis next to blueberries, lavender & lilac in the sunniest bits, brassicas until we got club root (memo - don't buy veg plants from someone you don't know in the market...). Now my garden is on limestone and shale, with quite a lot of rain but mild winters, pH varying from 6 to 8. Everything grows enormous...
It keeps the mind alive, moving from place to place... we don't plan to move anywhere else though.
I had deep, fertile alkaline loam in my Belgian garden and grew a wide range of plants. Clematis in particular like fertile alkaline soil but I did have to be careful about hardiness and avoid any that flowered in late winter/early spring as they were always frozen to death so no alpinas, macropetalas or montanas survived.
Here we have a range of soils including deep, fertile neutral loam in what was former pasture but also bands of volcanic stuff that sets like cement in dry spells and we keep finding piles of buried limestone from old buildings that have been demolished in the days when the house end of the plots was a settlement of many small dwellings and farm buildings. It's taken a while and lots of trial and error and, in the end, I think climate and rainfall are more important than soil type. Managing heat and drought is a whole new art.
I've managed to keep three out of about 30 lavender plants alive with a lot of grit. They just die. But rosemary grows well and bearded iris are also good some years. Pulsatilla are growing well and flowering - not prolifically but steadily. Roses go absolutely bonkers (especially this year) but even rugosa roses die suddenly now and then. Apple trees are stunted (wind or acidity?) and suffer a bit with canker except one which is healthy as a butcher's dog and fruits its socks off every year. Lilac grow well and flower without adding lime, in the main. Erysimum and helianthemum grow and flower but tend to be short lived (3 or 4 years).
After early losses, I've learned to try one of something and see how it does. What the book says hasn't been a particularly reliable guide as to what will grow well here. It may be that because the drainage varies greatly, the springs move and my mulching efforts are a bit inconsistent, there is an overlying pattern of differences in the garden that means things that might not thrive everywhere will grow well in certain spots and sometimes only for a while and then they'll abruptly die (I usually find that a spring has appeared under them). But there are also some plants that are more adaptable in these conditions and are happy anywhere.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”