soil conditions

hello to all gardeners i have a medium sized garden that goes slightly up hill the soil is not great but i persevere love growing runner beans not good this year have one part of garden very dry because of established hedge any plant suggestions happy new year beanie

 

Hi, Beanie! Welcome to GC!

What sort of things do you like, or this could be a very long answer! :D

I mean, do you prefer cottage garden type things, lots of flowers, or do you prefer evergreen stuff, and bushes, and modern look or older style? A photo would help too! We love photos!

My dwarf runners didn't do all that well this year either.... but the beetroot, potatoes and tomatos did! Swings and roundabouts.... :rolleyes:

Is your soil alkaline down there? Whatever you've got, digging in compost will always help.

 

Hi beanie and welcome. Will try and come up with a list of plants for dry soil soon, as I'm sure others will too!
Is it limey as well?

 

Oh, nearly forgot...... what is your established hedge that makes the soil dry? Just suddenly thought of lleylandii....... :eek:

 

love lots of colour and smaller shrubs hedge is a mixture of laurel and larger trees like lilac and berberis have i spelt that right not yet good enough to put photo on pc still learninglovely to know others are interested

 

Welcome beanie
This is a great site and you will learn a lot as I have

 

welcome beanie.I am new to the site as well, but from what I have seen there is a lot of knowledge available for novice and expert alike.
As to your garden, the most important thing is soil preparation, dig it well, removing all weeds, and add as much humus as you can get hold of, it`s not important to dig it in, use it as a mulch and the worms will mix it with the soil better than you can.David

 

Sorry to have missed your last post, Beanie!

I'm assuming your soil isn't acid, and using a list from the GC that I used most when I lived in Herts, http://www.aylettnurseries.co.uk/
here are a few possibilities..... if you'd like the full list, I could scan it and send it to you. Just pm or email me your e-mail address if you do want it.

These are labelled as "Plants which will tolerate difficult positions under trees with greedy roots or under the shade of building and house eaves" - so they should suit you!

anemone nemorosa, epimedium, iris foetidissima, lamium ( a thug! watch if you do use it! - but lovely silvery bits on the leaves..), vinca (another thug), ajuga (yet another thug..) cotoneaster, lonicera (climber - honeysuckle), pachysandra, pulmonaria.

There are more..... but my wrist is getting sore! Another source of info is the Nottcutts Handbook
https://secure.notcutts.co.uk/default.asp

It's the designer's bible! Useful heading slike "plants to stop burglars" - very useful!!

Just google any of those plants, and use google images too, and you'll see what they look like.

 

thanks Dendrobium for information I think "thugs" are the story of my life" but will persevere

 

hi David good to hear from another new member.how is weather in wales very mild here in essex and wet

 

its not good here Beani, very wet and very windy. the wind has blown my greenhouse door out.lucky for me I had no plants in them.

 

Evening Beanie, we have had a lot of the wet stuff this week but actually today was very warm and sunny. Supposed to be pretty good tomorrow as well but from Friday onwards it`s back to wet and windy. David.