Can't speak for the whole county of Dorset but my bit was once mostly farmland - there is still some left - and lowland heath. Sweetcorn is grown nearby, and blueberries and camellias not far away but the soil ph varies depending where exactly you are. I'm the alkaline side of neutral so need my blueberries in pots. Also, pears must have once have been grown here as the village name means pear field. I've been meaning to plant a couple for ages now - Comice is my favourite. My garden has lovely loamy soil with a gravelly layer about 18 ins down so drains pretty well and it's a mild climate here near to the south coast.
Here in Dordogne, Perigord blanc, (blanc means white for the limestone) we have shallow soil on top of limestone (quarry a mile away) with clay pockets. The winters can be very cold and the summers can be very hot. But in between it can be mild and very wet. Last winter was fairly dry, but went down to -17° and snowed - 15cms. This year we've had snow but it's been milder with a lot of rain. If you grow mediteranean plants you can lose them in winter and if you try to make an English garden you can lose plants in the summer. Don't think about sweet peas! I have added extra topsoil and loads of manure over the last 20 years!
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Here in the shadow of the Malvern Hills the soil is very clayey, though it probably has had little enrichment to it since the house was built 60 years ago. Originally the land was common land and the central 'green' is so still.
The climate is mild even compared to where we came from - Staffordshire. Of course Worcs is known for fruit and the cordon trees I put in when we first moved here nearly 3 years ago are thriving - in fact all the fruit bushes are. Apparently roses should as well but have only planted them latter half of last year so i wait to see.
We are on raised ground so don't get the flooding they do a mile away, nor do we get the rush of rain from the hills.
Soil needs alot of work so we just take an area at a time rather than rushing to do the whole thing.
We're in the SE corner of Ross-shire, a few hundred yards from the Inverness-shire border on a low-lying area on the Beauly then larger Moray Firths. About half a mile from us, inland, the ground starts rising quite sharply & Ben Wyvis at over 3,400 ft is only a few miles away to the north (currently behind cloud).
Ross-shire includes the mountainous west coast & inland, then in the east is the coastal plain & the Black Isle, which isn't black or an island but is very fertile. Lots of big farms there & big fields, unlike the small crofts of the more upland areas.
Our soil is very good for growing - at least it has been for the 2.5 years that we've been here! But exceptionally stony. For at least a couple of hundred years until the late 1800's this area was used to gather the cattle which had been driven through the glens from the north & west along the drove roads before eventually walking them down to Smithfield market in London, there was a cattle & a sheep market here, too. That's an awful lot of dung!!
Our growing conditions are good compared to the thin soils & harsh climate inland & to the west. Our garden, all 50x50 foot of it faces north & is extremely exposed to north winds, of course the sun doesn't yet get to 95% of it at this time of year, unfortunately
Sorry to waffle on, but to summarise the answer to the initial question - variety!
Good things about Cambridge/Norfolk/Lincoln borders; roses and plant auctions. Some good independent plant nurseries; I hate the big rip-off chains. A lot of people here love growing veg, so at any social gathering you can usually find a fellow veg bore! Loads of horses in the neighbourhood, so loads of manure. My soil is fairly alkali and in areas a sticky clay. I have never heard anyone complain about the soil, but we can have problems with lack of rain; we are in a dry corridor east of Cambridge.
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Can't speak for the whole county of Dorset but my bit was once mostly farmland - there is still some left - and lowland heath. Sweetcorn is grown nearby, and blueberries and camellias not far away but the soil ph varies depending where exactly you are. I'm the alkaline side of neutral so need my blueberries in pots. Also, pears must have once have been grown here as the village name means pear field. I've been meaning to plant a couple for ages now - Comice is my favourite. My garden has lovely loamy soil with a gravelly layer about 18 ins down so drains pretty well and it's a mild climate here near to the south coast.
Here in Dordogne, Perigord blanc, (blanc means white for the limestone) we have shallow soil on top of limestone (quarry a mile away) with clay pockets. The winters can be very cold and the summers can be very hot. But in between it can be mild and very wet. Last winter was fairly dry, but went down to -17° and snowed - 15cms. This year we've had snow but it's been milder with a lot of rain. If you grow mediteranean plants you can lose them in winter and if you try to make an English garden you can lose plants in the summer. Don't think about sweet peas! I have added extra topsoil and loads of manure over the last 20 years!
Here in the shadow of the Malvern Hills the soil is very clayey, though it probably has had little enrichment to it since the house was built 60 years ago. Originally the land was common land and the central 'green' is so still.
The climate is mild even compared to where we came from - Staffordshire. Of course Worcs is known for fruit and the cordon trees I put in when we first moved here nearly 3 years ago are thriving - in fact all the fruit bushes are. Apparently roses should as well but have only planted them latter half of last year so i wait to see.
We are on raised ground so don't get the flooding they do a mile away, nor do we get the rush of rain from the hills.
Soil needs alot of work so we just take an area at a time rather than rushing to do the whole thing.
We're in the SE corner of Ross-shire, a few hundred yards from the Inverness-shire border on a low-lying area on the Beauly then larger Moray Firths. About half a mile from us, inland, the ground starts rising quite sharply & Ben Wyvis at over 3,400 ft is only a few miles away to the north (currently behind cloud).
Ross-shire includes the mountainous west coast & inland, then in the east is the coastal plain & the Black Isle, which isn't black or an island
but is very fertile. Lots of big farms there & big fields, unlike the small crofts of the more upland areas.
Our soil is very good for growing - at least it has been for the 2.5 years that we've been here! But exceptionally stony. For at least a couple of hundred years until the late 1800's this area was used to gather the cattle which had been driven through the glens from the north & west along the drove roads before eventually walking them down to Smithfield market in London, there was a cattle & a sheep market here, too. That's an awful lot of dung!!


Our growing conditions are good compared to the thin soils & harsh climate inland & to the west. Our garden, all 50x50 foot of it faces north & is extremely exposed to north winds, of course the sun doesn't yet get to 95% of it at this time of year, unfortunately
Sorry to waffle on, but to summarise the answer to the initial question - variety!
Jean.
Good things about Cambridge/Norfolk/Lincoln borders; roses and plant auctions. Some good independent plant nurseries; I hate the big rip-off chains. A lot of people here love growing veg, so at any social gathering you can usually find a fellow veg bore!
Loads of horses in the neighbourhood, so loads of manure. My soil is fairly alkali and in areas a sticky clay. I have never heard anyone complain about the soil, but we can have problems with lack of rain; we are in a dry corridor east of Cambridge.