soil

I would like some advice as i am currently designing my son and partners garden. I transplanted some plants from our garden and some of them havent' picked up yet, although they have only been in a few days and i know sometimes it can take a while for them to recover, they don't look very good. I think the problem is the soil is very heavy (clay soil) i also think my son is watering the plants too much as i noticed today when he watered them the water was sitting in puddles, and when i have been the next day the soil is still quite wet. I do know that you have to water everyday with new plants but because of the type of soil does anyone know if he should miss a day of watering? The new plants we brought seem to be alright.

 

Id say every two days should be fine, daily is overkill unless its really really hot especially on clay were the water will be retained.

Of course he could water daily but just use less !!

 

My take on new plantings is that if the ground hasn't dried out, I don't water. Make the planting hole, drop the plant in, fill hole with water, don't water again until area around plant looks dry.

 

Thanks for the good advice pro gard and terrier i shall see my son tomorrow and tell him what you said.

 

Hi, please could i have some advice again. As i mentioned before about my son and partners garden. They have a conservertary which opens out to a split level garden, and the top half is slabbed very badly from prevous owners and it looks horrible. They haven't a lot to spend as they are doing their house up, so we have to cut corners. So i suggested that i lay gravel down, and put potted plants around, and then put up a trellis either side of the steps to screen that part off.

In my garden at the side of the house the ground is ugly concrete and i laid gravel down and it looked much better. ( I shall send down photos' of their garden when i learn again how to do that so you can see for yourself how it's progessing).

The problem i have now with the gravel, is that the top half leads down to some steps so the gravel will fall down them when walked on. The steps are quite wide so i thought of making a path by not covering the slabs with the gravel and then putting logs rolls or something either side of the path, but how can fix them onto slabs? also if i put a ledge near the steps to prevent the gravel going over people might trip over it when going down.
I did think of one of those plastic paths that you roll out and that could go to the end of the steps, what do fellow gardeners think i could do?

 

I replied when you asked the same question

 

Duplicate of http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/showthread.php/gravel-p328636.html#post328636, (my answer is there too)