When I was mixing in just manure and MPC into soil for new ground plants, plants that required very good drainage like lavenders, the roots rotted and died. Roses also struggled. Adding in horticultural sand/grit or JI No.3 for its drainage qualities helped. When I pulled out those dead plants, put in the h. sand/grit and/or JI#3 purely for its drainage qualities, the nearly dead or struggling plants recovered and new plants flourished.
As you have discovered, it’s not a good idea to add manure directly to a planting hole … it can be much too rich and can burn the roots and just added to a planting hole it does nothing to improve drainage.
The way to use manure is to incorporate it into the soil over a much larger area … in this way it improves the structure of the soil over a large area and a planting hole will not become a sump.
So often it’s not what you use …it’s the way that you use it that matters.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We’ve never put the manure straight on the ground, I suppose mainly because I don’t have any spaces and keeping it away from plants is difficult. We get pure horse dung, no straw bedding it in and use it on the compost heap, we can spread the whole lot on at about 3 to 4” deep in the winter and know it’s well rotted down by then.
Just have to take it away from the peonies for obvious reasons but apart from that it gets chucked over the lot.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Things like lavender (which prefer very free draining soil and not too rich) are a special case where I would consider using grit to improve drainage if I was on clay. Not dug deeply into the soil, but worked into raised beds or planting mounds higher than the original soil level.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
I have a couple of places in my garden where I've built a low dry stone wall and backfilled with soil. These are the only places where I can grow things like bearded iris, where the ground is warm enough behind the wall. These are the very small areas that I have mulched with grit, which has gradually worked it's way down into the soil. In most places, grit in clay just forms sumps that fill with water. But behind the wall, I guess the water just runs out of the gaps between the stones. Judging by the number of ferns growing out of them
Still can't grow lavender though - I assume that's the lack of lime as much as the excess of water.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
When I was mixing in just manure and MPC into soil for new ground plants, plants that required very good drainage like lavenders, the roots rotted and died. Roses also struggled. Adding in horticultural sand/grit or JI No.3 for its drainage qualities helped. When I pulled out those dead plants, put in the h. sand/grit and/or JI#3 purely for its drainage qualities, the nearly dead or struggling plants recovered and new plants flourished.
This happened when I was mixing in only multi-purpose compost, and also when I was just planting directly into ground soil with nothing added. Except at the very start long ago, I have always been mulching in manure at the top.
JI#3 was an easy way of getting drainage in there, along with some compost. Drainage and areation. I plant the suffering plants back in there again, or replace the dead plants with another plug of the same after improving drainage and they flourish.
@raisingirl. My lavenders just about grow in the ground here but it’s acid soil and I don’t want to alter it’s structure with lime. nice in containers though. i sow fresh seeds every year so I’ve always got a supply of new plants.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Peat biodegrades in soil. Anything that biodegrades means it becomes plant nutrition at some point. It may not happen fast, but it is only a matter of time.
A couple of years ago I renovated a small 'border' started by the previous owners. They had basically stuck in a couple of prostrate conifers then covered all the remaining soil with thick black plastic (not even membrane - just plastic) and then dumped a load of shingle on top.
Not surprisingly, the conifers were dying so I removed a lot of the shingle and ripped out the disintegrating plastic. The soil underneath was virtually dead and still covered with quite a lot of the shingle. Area faces due south with no shade so decided to go with what I had - ie poor, dry soil in full sun. Dug most of the shingle in so it was now also nicely free draining.
With a bit of proper membrane over and a lot of shingle, pebbles and a few boulders it's now a 'proper' pebble border - and it's the one area in my heavy clay garden where I can grow lavenders, small rock roses and certain euphorbias. When life gives you lemons....
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
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So often it’s not what you use …it’s the way that you use it that matters.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We get pure horse dung, no straw bedding it in and use it on the compost heap, we can spread the whole lot on at about 3 to 4” deep in the winter and know it’s well rotted down by then.
Just have to take it away from the peonies for obvious reasons but apart from that it gets chucked over the lot.
Still can't grow lavender though - I assume that's the lack of lime as much as the excess of water.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
JI#3 was an easy way of getting drainage in there, along with some compost. Drainage and areation. I plant the suffering plants back in there again, or replace the dead plants with another plug of the same after improving drainage and they flourish.
nice in containers though.
i sow fresh seeds every year so I’ve always got a supply of new plants.
Not surprisingly, the conifers were dying so I removed a lot of the shingle and ripped out the disintegrating plastic. The soil underneath was virtually dead and still covered with quite a lot of the shingle. Area faces due south with no shade so decided to go with what I had - ie poor, dry soil in full sun. Dug most of the shingle in so it was now also nicely free draining.
With a bit of proper membrane over and a lot of shingle, pebbles and a few boulders it's now a 'proper' pebble border - and it's the one area in my heavy clay garden where I can grow lavenders, small rock roses and certain euphorbias. When life gives you lemons....
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.