Plant Suggestions for Tricky Soil
Hello everybody I was wondering if you could help me with a very specific problem. 2 years ago I moved from a garden with very sandy soil, it was easy to dig, was so warm things were in flower until December and as long as I added some organic matter and kept it watered it was no trouble. My new garden is very different. It seems to be clay but overlying a rubbly, chalky soil. It's a warm garden so while it gets heavy over winter it dries out quickly in the summer. What plants will do well seems hard to predict and just to confuse matters some do really well at first and then either sicken or refuse to flower (I'm not sure if this is because the roots reach they chalky bits) It also has the most monumentally bad slug/snail issue I have ever encountered (I've actually had whole beds of new plants vanish overnight). I've found a lot of plants that do well in late spring and a good few that do well in late summer/early autumn but I am having trouble with slug-resistant, midsummer, flowering perennials to cover a big flowering gap I have. Can anybody make any suggestion (I should say I need no more geranium's, they do very well and are threatening to take over completely) ? Help !
I should add I have been adding compost each spring and manure each autumn to improve the soil structure. The soil seems very fertile and has good worm activity.
Last edited: 06 June 2016 09:04:39
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i would do exactly the same as your previous garden, mix in plenty of organic matter - except this time you want the soil breaking up so it drains during the winter and holding the moisture in the summer.
with chalk underlying it no rhodies or azaleas will grow (unless in pots)
how deep is the clay? if its less than 1 foot I would try and double dig (might need a pickaxe) and mix the chalk rubble into your clay (suppose it will help with the drainage?).
unless you want raised beds?