Mr Grinch's Garden

On the whole we've had a dry summer so the worms will have gone deep, if you put the organic matter down you will probably find by next spring it's disappeared. The worms will surface in the wetter weather. How deep is the pan?

 

When i say pan i mean top of the soil. If i keep adding muck then top few inches will be good stuff but the top of the original soil would become that pan is it is rock hard at times.

 

I suggest you dig the surface over before you add manure etc. It won't be just the top few inches that gain the good stuff Mr. Grinch. As I said the worms will surface and take it down deep. Worms can work in any soil, you'd be surprised how tough they are. I have just added two to three inches of home compost to my rose bed, the worms are already taking that down, in a few weeks it will have disappeared completely and will be needing more.

 

Have you ever dug (i.e. double-deep) any part of the troubled side? maybe it has builder rubble, or a plough-pan, or similar under the top layer of soil. if so digging and sorting that out, and replanting (with organic matter) will make all the difference for sure.

If you've never had cause to dig the troubled side then maybe an exploratory hole or two, looking for rubble / hard plough pan etc., might be in order?

I'm clutching at straws, but I expect that the relevant straw is out there

 

The other issue is that its so chocked up with plants that i dont have a lot of room to dig the surface. Hate looking at bare earth.

G

 

I have dug a test pit some years ago. There is two feet of brown (although clay soil) then yellow clay. No pan as such. No builders rubble. When we built our extension, they put in a soak away and the yellow clay goes very deep indeed. They got to 5 feet and still like moulding clay. In fact, no point in a soak away as the water will not drain away.
I am convinced that it was my lack of preparation in the soil in the first place thats contributing to the issue.

G

 

It will surely help I have put a lot more effort, and compost/manure, into more recent beds that I have made, and the plants have done better than the earlier beds I made. Original beds were tractor-ploughed and rotavated (manure added on top and rotavated in). Later beds were double-dug with JCB, and on some French drain added too, and then manure/compost rotavated in. My clay goes down to the bottom [at least] of the 3M deep fottings the poxy engineer said we needed - undisturbed clay, but a Poplar on the far side of the house, from where we rebuilt the garage into an extension, was "within range" apparently. Its been there 50 years, is 60' tall and we saw no evidence of roots having come all the way under the house to where the garage was when we dug the trenches! Anyways, my soil sounds like yours, except that it does drain - I'm on a high spot so it has somewhere to go to, but in a really wet period we have standing-lakes on areas of the garden.

 

Does sound very similier conditions Kristan for sure.

 

I don't suppose all your plants are evergreen Mr. Grinch, could you not put the manure down during their dormancy period when they've died back?

 

Ive got the Box and the odd evergreen but most are perennial. I could do i suppose but wouldn't just mulching be a quick boost rather than a long term restructuring of the soil ?

The reason i say this is because i mulch the Hibiscus, Witch Hazel, tree's and Roses every year but it doesn't stop them from suffering. The Witch Hazel foliage at the moment looks like its in October and not August.

G

 

Its long term, as the worms will pull the mulch into the soil, but I don't think it is going to sort out drainage and soil structure to the same extent as "all out, dig and replant" would do

 

Its interesting as i planted a Mallow 18 months ago. Risky i thought as looking at what it likes its the exact opposite to what i have but i must say, its one of the plants of the garden both this year and last. A quick look on the 'NET tells me this:

In their natural environment, they usually grow on poor, rocky soil, often in coastal regions. The conditions in the root zone therefore are usually free draining and you need to mimic this for the best results in your own garden with Lavatera. This preference for poor, freely draining soil make Lavatera ideal for a drought tolerant garden.

It success to me would indicate a poor soil condition and maybe a reason why others are looking so rough. Maybe the soil is not as wet either as i thought and drought could be the issue. We had a lot of rain over winter, wettest on record and its fine. I have a feeling that a mulch may not be enough.

G

 

Reading post #1150 and the one above, perhaps it's time to experiment and add a couple of other plants that prefer free draining soil like Lavatera.

 

and Sedum does well BUT Buddleija looks sick. Both do not mind dry poor soils.

Work it out, i cannot not.

 

Mallow grows fine here ... sends down a massive tap root (unless I am mistaking it for the wrong animal??). Doesn't seem to care about growing through solid clay ... nor the fact that there is plenty of manure mulch around the place ...