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Gardening on peat.

plant pauperplant pauper Posts: 6,904
in Problem solving
On Saturday I had digger boy in again and this time he dug a hole. A very deep hole, ~6ft. From the top to the bottom of that hole is pure black, sticky peat. No 'soil' no worms, no texture, just peat!
My question is this. If I plant my several silver birch underplanted with this and that will they survive? Before the hole was there it was just pretendies lawn; clover, buttercups, moss etc but now I'm concerned that there will be nothing to sustain trees. I fancied it as a woodlandy, bluebelly wood kind of thing with hostas, grasses and ground cover. On the other side of the 'path-that-isn't-there-yet' is a huge rhododendron, a pieris and some dogwood which had been taking over the world but has now been tamed a bit. They are obviously quite happy there and at one point Mellors dug a little trench because it gets so boggy in that bit. 
Opinions and suggestions welcome as long as I agree with them.  o:)

Posts

  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited June 2023
    plant pauper said:

    Opinions and suggestions welcome as long as I agree with them.  



    Sounds like cancel culture.

    Where are you?  Some type of Fenland?  Mossland?  Peat bog?
    or ... you could plant gnomes.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    I don’t think that would be right for the silver birch,  mine are not growing as well as I would like and that’s just on acid soil. 
    Hostas would like it.  No worms maybe no slugs either. 
    The way things are with rotten compost these days,  people would pay a fortune for a few bags of that. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    Very little will grow in pure acidic peat. What you have is pretty much what a peat bog in Scotland would be.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Indeed. It would need removed and the soil amended enough for growing anything @plant pauper. Nothing grows in proper peat bogs. Some stuff does in areas of the top layer which has accumulated over hundreds of years, but not directly in the peat itself. Blanket bog
    The most famous area of it in the world  :)
    https://www.theflowcountry.org.uk/flow-facts/

    Lucky you though - as @Lyn says, lots of folk would be happy to take it off your hands!
    There'll be loads where you are though.  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Posts: 1,957
    Fake grass, an outside settee, an outside kitchen with a pizza oven, loads of solar lights. 

    Sorted. 
  • plant pauperplant pauper Posts: 6,904
    @bédé Yes.
    @lyn I have wall to wall slug. You can't put your foot down after the rain without stepping on several. The funny thing is, and I'm knocking on wood here, they don't destroy my hostas. A few tiny holes this year but this is the worst ever. Diggerboy suggested drying the peat and burning it! 😉
    @Fairygirl and @punkdoc that's it exactly but there will be no removing or amending. I'll simply put it back to pretendies grass.
    @TheGreenMan nailed it! You know you're a redneck when your outside furniture used to be your inside furniture.
  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Posts: 1,957
    plant pauper said:

    @TheGreenMan nailed it! You know you're a redneck when your outside furniture used to be your inside furniture.
    We used our outdoor table and chairs indoors at New Year as we ended up with unplanned houseguests. 

    Put them in the utility room with the dehumidifier on for 12 hours after blasting off the bird poop. 

    Chucked a table cloth over the top and popped some placemats on. 

    We were seconds away from buying a dining room table and chairs but then saw sense. 

    Job done. Redneck or savvy? 
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    edited June 2023
    Definitely savvy @TheGreenMan. You're not secretly Scottish are you?  :D

    We used to use the pasting table as an extra at Christmas when we had the whole family there. Ideal for the young 'uns. 

    How about a pond @plant pauper?
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Posts: 1,957
    Fairygirl said:
    Definitely savvy @TheGreenMan. You're not secretly Scottish are you?  :D

    We used to use the pasting table as an extra at Christmas when we had the whole family there. Ideal for the young 'uns. 

    How about a pond @plant pauper?
    Scottish and Finnish DNA…
  • plant pauperplant pauper Posts: 6,904
    I have a huge pond already. Yes it's natural and yes I use it as a sump to drain the ground around it. I don't wish to rub it in to the empty water butters but I was inj wellies today walking across to next door. We've had a drop of rain! 👩‍🌾
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