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Heathers
Diane Hall
Posts: 17
in Talkback
Hi have just cleared a large sloping site of very old plants and weeds and now ready to plant a batch of spring and summer heathers. Unfortunately my soil is neutral with lots of clay. Have purchased some ericaceous soil and wondered if it would be ok to dig this into the earth before planting or do I need to also add peat moss. Any ideas most welcome. Many thanks.
Diane
0
Posts
Hi Diane, if your soil is heavy clay you need to break it up. Heathers like a free draining soil so any added organic matter will help. Depending on the size of your bed it may be quite expensive to use solely ericaceous compost to do this. I use well rotted down leaf mould as a mulch around mine.
I would choose something more suitable for the bank and have the heathers in potted ericaceous compost
In the sticks near Peterborough
Or tiered raised beds with a good base of gravel for drainage, filled with your ericaceous soil.
Thanks Kitty 2, Nutcutlet and Blue Onion - your comments have been really helpful.
Hi Verdun have already bought a majority of the heathers (about 50 in total as it's quite a large area to cover) and have got some spring and summer ones 90% of which require acidic soil. The winter ones are not due in garden centres for about another couple of months so will bear in mind your suggestions. Think maybe I am being too careful and should just plant them with a helping of ericaceous soil and your suggestion of mycchorrizal fungi (which I have never heard of but sounds very impressive) and keep fingers crossed!
Hi again Verdun have been researching mycchorrizal fungi on line and will be purchasing some today - will a 360 g pack feed 50 heather plants? Just to reiterate am going to dig, fill with ericaceous then sprinkle some mycchorrizal fungi then plant and hope for the best! Cheers. Diane.
Thank you so much for your advice. Have ordered the mycchorrizal fungi so as soon as it arrives the heathers are going in the ground! The beauty is it is south facing and gets lots of sun so hopefully they will thrive. Thanks again for your help.