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South Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Just moved into a new house with good sized front and rear gardens, my query is about the soil and if my plants will survive here. The soil is heavy (clay) I found it great to work with digging over and weeding then completing a neat curvy border,The garden is in sun from morning till about five or six currently with some shade later on.
My plants Camelia, Red Robin, Hydrengea, Forrest Flame, Apple Tree x3, Pear Tree, Lupins, Ferns, Bambo, Rhododendron, Honey Suckle..
I have afew more but may keep them in pots,

Love reading peoples blogs and questions helped me out before just by being on this site its great ,Grows On You, definitely Grew On Me . :,)




Answers

 

well you have made a good start. with it being clay did you add any extra humus/compost to the planting holes to help new roots explore. That helps your plants settle better.
which plants are you leaving in pots? remember they will need lots of water.

17 May, 2012

 

Will add extra compost to the area before I plant up any of my plants, only been here a week and just had to get the garden sorted out first,,

I dont want to plant my babies in clay if they will die, the plants in pots are Rose, Montbretia, Sweet peas, Aubretia, Creeping Jenny, Primrose, Strawberrys, Daffs (done) and Clematis.

I put ALL my plants in pots for the move some need to be planted asap or should I buy bigger pots and use multi p" compost then start a fresh and buy all new plants that only love heavy soil.??

Thankyou

17 May, 2012

 

Roses are fine in clay, they actually prefer it but mix in compost and bark chips. Crocosmia/Montbretia are also fine in improved clay soil - same for Daffs, Primrose and strawberries.

17 May, 2012

 

I garden on heavy clay and despite adding tons of manure and compost it reverts back to clay :-) Everything i've planted survives and my method is to dig the hole ,remove most of the clay and replant in multi purpose with a handful of bonemeal ,then break up the left over clay and add it to the top or remove it to the tip .Each year I add a covering of poultry manure pellets ..it keeps the top 6 to 12 inches workable .

17 May, 2012

 

So glad to hear that my plants will be ok in the soil as ive had them for afew years now and love to see them grow and grow,,

Thank you for your comments and advice ..

@ susiespearin this is great advice and makes sense to remove from the hole and re-use on top, good to know you have many a plant growing well due to your own method of adding the bonemeal and pellets, will use this method in my garden and see if it works for me too..

17 May, 2012

 

You have a lot of acid loving plants there - have you checked the pH of your soil? pH metres are quite cheap and a good buy from most garden centres, and could save you a lot of heartache.

17 May, 2012

 

Will get a soil testing kit, didnt even know my plants were acid loving Thanks. I just bought plants i liked and planted them in my garden with great success,, I just knew the soil was very different to what they used to be in, Then worried .haha

19 May, 2012

 

The pH for most of the UK is naturally acidic. Unless you have limestone or the top soil has been removed then your soil is acidic. Clay does make the soil more alkali (mine is heavy clay in parts...like blue make pots!) and that has made parts neutral pH. Adding iron helps with any acidic plants...so dump any rusty nails or metal with acidic loving plants as that was the Victorian thing to do, though we do now have (expensive) ericacious feeds to buy.

19 May, 2012

How do I say thanks?

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