One of those BORING soil/worm/compost [blah] questions
carl
I have made a couple of narrow flower-beds by lifting up series of
connecting York-stones, and digging out, maybe, a couple of tonnes of soil
- or at least several very heavy cubic metres of the stuff.
Being slightly disorganised, I have managed to replace much of the
removed, heavy, very heavy, bricky, clumpy, nasty original soil with, er,
the original soil :-) (smiling, though my back is breaking)
I added 'a few' dozen sacks of topsoil, and several sacks of various types
of compost, as well as smidgens of Irish moss peat (oops), and quite a lot
of chipped bark (oh dear), added composted chipped-bark (oh flip!) removed
some more of the overall product, tipped in a couple of bags of 6X (phew!)
and have some how have managed to end up with...well...heavy, very heavy,
bricky, clumpy, nasty soil.
Since then, of course, I have discovered the wonderful world of URG :-)
...and since having meticulously planted my shrubbery, I have seen various
threads which dealt with soil composition, wormeries, and the
de-oxygenating effects of dug-in chipped-bark. How should I proceed?
Please forgive the length of this posting, but I'm almost at my
wits-ends. Obviously.
Thanks
Carl
Alan Gould
<ca...@verse.demon.co.uk> writes
>I live in central London, so I'm not really a PROPER gardener ;-)
areas than in rural ones.
snip....
>Please forgive the length of this posting, but I'm almost at my
>wits-ends. Obviously.
Hi Carl, thanks for your enquiry. You have a number of problems there,
but you sound as though you are tackling them. Why not stand back for a
moment and assess your situation. Think about what you would like your
garden to be doing next spring and how you would like it to progress in
the longer term. Identify the areas of action you want to take. Then
post again to urg and put some specific questions about things you are
not sure of. Some of us will do all we can to advise you.
Best wishes.
--
Alan and Joan Gould
carl
<al...@agolincs.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> snip....
> >You have a number of problems there
I was just thinking the same :-)
> >Think about what you would like your garden to be doing next spring and how
> >you would like it to progress in the longer term.
I have many shrubs, a few small/young trees, and some climbers.
Functionally, I would like to 'soften' the high fences, sooner rather than
later. I'm not exactly green fingered, and like most people I have to
learn from experience. I have tried to create an 'instant garden', by
buying fairly mature plants from wholesale nursery-gardens, and spending
literally hundreds of hours contemplating their textures and trying to
create attractive contrasts, then planting them extremely carefully to
make the most of the changing perspective enjoyed by 'pedestrian movement'
around the shrubbery.
Over-ambitious, and probably not a realistic aim, I suppose! And I'm only
just becoming aware of how dynamic my garden is; I mean, these things
GROW :-)
And now I have soil requirements, and leaf-drop in the Winter to worry
over. Plants are SO selfish!
> >Identify the areas of action you want to take. Then post again to urg and put
> >some specific questions about things you are not sure of.
Given the right amount of light, and fairly mild temperatures, is the soil
in my garden 'generally' suitable for 2-4 year-old plants such as Salix
Purpurea Nana, Cordyline Torbay Red, Wisteria Sinensis, Sorbaria
aitchisonii, Nandina Domestica, etc? I know the question sounds horribly
non-specific, but I am anxious to find out whether my plants may suffer in
such 'humus' (?) rich soil?
Alan Gould
>Over-ambitious, and probably not a realistic aim, I suppose! And I'm only
>just becoming aware of how dynamic my garden is; I mean, these things
>GROW :-)
>
>And now I have soil requirements, and leaf-drop in the Winter to worry
>over. Plants are SO selfish!
Thanks for a good chuckle Carl, and not really at your expense.
What you have discovered is that plants and gardens don't always do what
their gardener plans for them. Sometimes you have to fit in with their
requirements, also with circumstances of weather and location etc.
A lot of things in life are like that, children, pets, holidays, TV
sets, cars, jobs and so on. Even works of art like painting, writing and
sculpting turn out nothing like the original vision of their creators.
In the end however, your garden will be a thing of your own making,
something that only you can take credit for, and there is no other
feeling of personal satisfaction to match that.
Hurry less, worry less, think more, enjoy more, most importantly of all
have patience. You own the garden and the right to do as you wish with
it, but you are only its temporary steward in fact. If you carry out the
job responsibly and keep faith with your garden, the results will
follow.
Chris French & Helen Johnson
>
>connecting York-stones, and digging out, maybe, a couple of tonnes of soil
>- or at least several very heavy cubic metres of the stuff.
>
>Being slightly disorganised, I have managed to replace much of the
>removed, heavy, very heavy, bricky, clumpy, nasty original soil with, er,
>the original soil :-) (smiling, though my back is breaking)
>
>I added 'a few' dozen sacks of topsoil, and several sacks of various types
>of compost, as well as smidgens of Irish moss peat (oops), and quite a lot
>of chipped bark (oh dear), added composted chipped-bark (oh flip!) removed
>some more of the overall product, tipped in a couple of bags of 6X (phew!)
>and have some how have managed to end up with...well...heavy, very heavy,
>bricky, clumpy, nasty soil.
>
>Since then, of course, I have discovered the wonderful world of URG :-)
>
>...and since having meticulously planted my shrubbery, I have seen various
>threads which dealt with soil composition, wormeries, and the
>de-oxygenating effects of dug-in chipped-bark. How should I proceed?
>
>wits-ends. Obviously.
>
>
>
>Carl
don't worry about the nitrogen robbery, in the long term, the plants
will be healthier for what you have put in. It is annuals that suffer
more than the shrubs. the 6X is reasonably high in nitrogen. If the
plants don't look to be establishing well, give them a foliar feed, and
that should help. Make a compost pile to put in the prunings that will
come from your many shrubs-after chipping them, and also grass
clippings, suitably mixed with drier material so they don't go gloopy.
In the following years, apply compost as a mulch around your shrubs and
they will thrive. the hard work with the soil should now be considered
as finished. the worms and addition of mulches will do the rest.
--
Chris French and Helen Johnson
Leeds
Email address valid for at least two weeks from posting
Chris French
>> >Think about what you would like your garden to be doing next spring and how
>> >you would like it to progress in the longer term.
>
>I have many shrubs, a few small/young trees, and some climbers.
>Functionally, I would like to 'soften' the high fences, sooner rather than
>later. I'm not exactly green fingered, and like most people I have to
>learn from experience. I have tried to create an 'instant garden'
>Over-ambitious, and probably not a realistic aim, I suppose! And I'm only
>just becoming aware of how dynamic my garden is; I mean, these things
>GROW :-)
>
!! :-)
>
>> >Identify the areas of action you want to take. Then post again to urg and put
>> >some specific questions about things you are not sure of.
>
>Given the right amount of light, and fairly mild temperatures, is the soil
>in my garden 'generally' suitable for 2-4 year-old plants such as Salix
>Purpurea Nana, Cordyline Torbay Red, Wisteria Sinensis, Sorbaria
>aitchisonii, Nandina Domestica, etc? I know the question sounds horribly
>non-specific, but I am anxious to find out whether my plants may suffer in
>such 'humus' (?) rich soil?
I know the feeling that you have an idea, and you just want to see it
there, but I think that now is the time to sit back, give the garden
time to settle and think of specific things you want to tackle. As
you've realised plants will grow, and it takes time and experience to
envisage how this will impact on the idea in your head of what you want.
I don't think that you need to worry about your soil being humus rich,
it sounds a heavy soil with plenty of clay, and the humus will help to
improve it's structure. But you do need to give it time. The worms and
other soil organisms need time to work on the organic matter and to
incorporate it into the soil structure. the things to think about now
would be how well drained you soil is and the pH of it, as these will
affect the plants that will grow there.
If you are worried about the bark you worked into the soil you could add
something that will supply some more nitrogen. Say some farmyard manure,
or some pelletted chicken manure.
I can't really say much about the plants that you specify since I don't
know much about them, being gardening newbies too.
If you have specific things, then ask questions on that topic - ie.
climbers etc. that will cover you fence quite quickly.
Jacky Sutton-Adam
<ca...@verse.demon.co.uk> writes
>In article <uQTiwmAS...@agolincs.demon.co.uk>, Alan Gould
><al...@agolincs.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> >You have a number of problems there
>
>I was just thinking the same :-)
>
>> >Think about what you would like your garden to be doing next spring and how
>> >you would like it to progress in the longer term.
>
>I have many shrubs, a few small/young trees, and some climbers.
>Functionally, I would like to 'soften' the high fences, sooner rather than
>later. I'm not exactly green fingered, and like most people I have to
>learn from experience. I have tried to create an 'instant garden', by
>buying fairly mature plants from wholesale nursery-gardens, and spending
>literally hundreds of hours contemplating their textures and trying to
>create attractive contrasts, then planting them extremely carefully to
>make the most of the changing perspective enjoyed by 'pedestrian movement'
>around the shrubbery.
>
>Over-ambitious, and probably not a realistic aim, I suppose! And I'm only
>just becoming aware of how dynamic my garden is; I mean, these things
>GROW :-)
>
>And now I have soil requirements, and leaf-drop in the Winter to worry
>over. Plants are SO selfish!
>
leaf drop is one of nature's freebies!
Depending on the enthusiasm, time and space available you can a) make a
leaf mould compost (store for 18 months/2 years) b) add to the rest of
your compost pile for 6 months- Autumn leaves are ready by spring using
this method in my garden, or c) sweep the lot onto the flower beds in
autumn and leave nature and the worms to do their stuff.
as for soil requirements for plants what have you got to lose? provided
you keep plants well watered while they are establishing, fork in some
good garden compost each spring, and use a mulch around drought
sensitive things in the summer, the worst that can happen is they die!
re the deoxygeating chipped bark, you could try adding some vermiculite
(lightweight sand coloured stuff available from garden centres in
various grades) around the root balls of your existing plants. It's
supposed to make a more open aerated environment for roots. Can't say
I've tried it myself tho! :-)
It occurs to me that the most valuable things I've learnt since I
started gardening are patience, a certain resignation that some plants
you try will inevitably fail and that the war on weeds is never ending
so no point in stressing out about it!
>> >Identify the areas of action you want to take. Then post again to urg and put
>> >some specific questions about things you are not sure of.
>
>Given the right amount of light, and fairly mild temperatures, is the soil
>in my garden 'generally' suitable for 2-4 year-old plants such as Salix
>Purpurea Nana, Cordyline Torbay Red, Wisteria Sinensis, Sorbaria
>aitchisonii, Nandina Domestica, etc? I know the question sounds horribly
>non-specific, but I am anxious to find out whether my plants may suffer in
>such 'humus' (?) rich soil?
Have no experience of these sorry!
--
Jacky
ja...@cambridge-cheese.demon.co.uk
A little chaos in the garden is no bad thing.
carl
<al...@agolincs.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> snip....
> Thanks for a good chuckle Carl, and not really at your expense.
And thank _you_ for your inspiring advice:
> Hurry less, worry less, think more, enjoy more, most importantly of all
> have patience. You own the garden and the right to do as you wish with
> it, but you are only its temporary steward in fact. If you carry out the
> job responsibly and keep faith with your garden, the results will
> follow.
Besides, 'There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked
about...and that is not being talked about' :-)
(Oscar Wilde, who may not have been smiling at the time)
Carl
MuckEpup
>What you have discovered is that plants and gardens don't always do what
>their gardener plans for them. [snip]
Even works of art like painting, writing and
>sculpting turn out nothing like the original vision of their creators.
I have found sometimes that the result, although not as you have planned, can
sometimes be a delightful surprise! :-)
Alan Gould
<muck...@aol.com> writes
The sculptor Henry Moore is reputed to have said that he did not carve a
figure from a block of marble, he only took the surplus material off the
figure which was already there.
That's a bit deep for me but I feel sure that what we finish up with in
our gardens is seldom what we had in mind.
--
Alan Gould