Ah ripply, you kept chicken you are already one of us girl! You are a gardener in the making! Dove (saw your post in June GW) always makes me laugh when a plant label says "full sun, moist soil,well drained) how can it be both!
I've done soil tests. In the old part of the garden which has lawn already, it's acid soil. It's looks like ph 6. On the other side with all this renovation work, the new topsoil is alkaline. And strongly so. The ph is 7.5
I don't know what to do about choosing plants now. Will this new topsoil eventually revert back to what the normal soil is? Will that take years? Or will I always have a garden now that is half acid and half alkaline?
Maybe, but it gives you more options on what to grow. It will generally revert to the underlying soil pH eventually, but that also depends on what you put on it in the mean time. That's good news.
Don't worry about it too much. Your readings are fairly normal. Just go ahead and plant what you like. My garden is fairly neutral and I grow all sorts.
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
The new grass has grown! This part is at at the side of the house. I got a honeysuckle and a Jasmine. I hope they'll help cover the ugly fence a bit. The small plants at the back are rosemary and lavender. I shouldn't have got those as I think it'll be too cold here for them to survive in winter. It just looks quite bare still.
Well done, am delighted to see you have some progress and the grass is looking good. I'm hoping that you are also feeling less overwhelmed now. Am looking forward to see the updates in the future.
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Good article Dove thank you for posting
Ah ripply, you kept chicken you are already one of us girl! You are a gardener in the making! Dove (saw your post in June GW) always makes me laugh when a plant label says "full sun, moist soil,well drained) how can it be both!
I think the hens are easy compared to plants
.
I've done soil tests. In the old part of the garden which has lawn already, it's acid soil. It's looks like ph 6. On the other side with all this renovation work, the new topsoil is alkaline. And strongly so. The ph is 7.5
I don't know what to do about choosing plants now. Will this new topsoil eventually revert back to what the normal soil is? Will that take years? Or will I always have a garden now that is half acid and half alkaline?
Maybe, but it gives you more options on what to grow. It will generally revert to the underlying soil pH eventually, but that also depends on what you put on it in the mean time. That's good news.
Don't worry about it too much. Your readings are fairly normal. Just go ahead and plant what you like. My garden is fairly neutral and I grow all sorts.
The new grass has grown! This part is at at the side of the house. I got a honeysuckle and a Jasmine. I hope they'll help cover the ugly fence a bit. The small plants at the back are rosemary and lavender. I shouldn't have got those as I think it'll be too cold here for them to survive in winter. It just looks quite bare still.
Looking good. You may want to think about adding 2-3 small trees, That would give you a bit of interest down the length.