I love flowers and different plants but the soil at my home does not. I have part sandy soil, part hard clay soil. Some parts the water runs off, other parts I water and it runs right thru, so that the plants seem dry all the time. The area seems to like pine trees and apricot trees and apple trees that will grow and give fruit, but flowers like peonies, roses which I love do not. Does anyone have any ideas to improve the soil in my specific problem area?
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I have clay soil and done my homework. I have thousands of flowers and plants. When you buy your flower or plants buy good soil and gypsum.and plant food. Dig the hole ,add gypsum and chop up the clay with the gypsum. Add good soil, plant flower, add food, more soil and cover the top with mulch. The gypsum breaks up the clay and the mulch keeps in the moisture so u won't have to water so much. Do this every time you plant. Good Luck, Christine
Compost and add to soil each spring dig it in
All year I put all vegitable matters, lettuce, onion skins, potatoe skins, tomatoe ends, egg shells, coffee grounds no meat into a black bin, I add a little soil and mix it It composts naturally and makes nice black soil, I take from the bottom in the spring and dig into the garden.. Keeps the moisture and my plants just leap out of the soil.
COMPOST .COMPOST COMPOST. I have a very large compost pile, and 2 compost makers. would never be without them, also make compost tea ! The plants love a drink of " tea "
I agree with Rosa and Susan: COMPOST. It helps sandy soil retain moisture, and helps loosen clay soil. If you don't have any homemade compost, you can purchase it in bags from any reputable garden center/nursery.
You can probably get a soil testing kit from your county extension office, or at some gardening supply stores. Before you go to the expense of adding a ton of organic matter (which may be what it needs anyway,) I would test the soil to find out exactly what is there. It sounds to me like you have some drainage problems, and that in some places your soil is full of clay, and in others, it absorbs the water easily. When you do a soil test, test in several areas so that you can discover how different the soil in various parts of your yard are. The recommendation of adding organic matter is undoubtedly right on, but you need to find out what kind of organic material would be most beneficial. In the future, when you fertilize, I would use one of those long acting fertilizers.
I am not sure that gypsum is the answer. You need organic material and possibly sand mixed with that clay. It may take a while to get enough organic material to do the job. Depending on how much soil you need to improve, you may want to get shredded leaves by the truck load. On the other hand, peat moss is much more manageable but costs a good bit. How do you mix it in?
Here is a good article on Improving Clay Soil:
www.taunton.com/
Here's a good article on Improving Sandy Soil:
www.umassgreeninfo.org/
It seems to me that mixing the two with some organic material might be a good way to improve them both.
Susan from ThriftyFun
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