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dry soil due to neighbour's conifers
loopyloupitt
Posts: 10
my neighbour has a line of conifers running down the side of her garden - they do not block out any light on my side which is great but they do suck up all the moisture from my soil along the borderline - is there anything i can add my side to improve the soil
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Posts
I have the same problem loopy. All you can do is plant things which will cope with the conditions. Gardeners don't plant conifer hedges only inconsiderate people who are too lazy to garden in a considerate way.
they are a pain - but my neighbour is a lovely lady she planted them in the 70's along with half the country I think ! she does keep the height under control and as I say due to the position luckily they do not block out any light so it could be worse
Should have my neighbour totally the opposite. Have you tried speaking to her about maybe some other form of hedging? Shrubs that do work are buddlea and forsythia along with the perennials that cope with dry conditions. Echninacea, heleianthus and others. If you go to the RHS website and use the filters there, there are many which you could choose from.
she loves her conifers i am afraid to say and even though i would happily wave a wand and make them vanish I do not want to fall out with her. Thank you for the planting advice i think that is the best route to take - I am very fond of Buddleja as are the bees so that will be a prefect choice will check out the RHS website for some perennials .
thank you I have a few lavenders so planting another will be no problem sweet rocket sounds nice looks to be quite a few plants i can pop in just keep everything well watered
If you have plenty of light a lot of plants from mediterranean climates are very tolerant of dry conditions. Californian poppy [Escholtzia I think], Santolina, Gypsophila loads of them. Need to water them whilst they establish, but after that you should be fine.
thank you - I have a rosemary there and it does well so they will go nice alongside - A big thank you to all for the ideas
I have a similar situation with the neighbour's leylandii. My lavenders all died this year so must have been too dry and cold for them.
Iceland poppies actually thrive next to it, along with geraniums. I have also managed to grow oriental poppies and primroses in the soil next to/under the conifers. As someone else said, honesty does well there too, and buddleia.
As to what you can add to the soil, I mulch every year with different mulches to keep a high amount of organic material in the soil. Last year I used a coir compost. This year will be rotted manure, then I'll alternate. Like the other posters have said, there isn't much you can do except grow plants which like those conditions.