Specialty Gardening: What's your "To Do" List for the garden in March?, 0 by pennefeather

pennefeather wrote:
Tasbasco,

Do you have heavy clay soil? I was wondering since you said that your coneflowers rot from the wet soil. Do you think that they would do better if you amended the soil more? Perhaps with some bark fines to break up the clay and some additional hummus or compost?

I have an inside corner where the soil is always moister, but I just realized yesterday that this soil has never been amended. It is just slick clay, so the water sits there more. Once I can make it to the store today, I am going to amend that area, and then plant some of the monarda that I have. Monarda likes moist soil anyway. I'm also going to add in some lilies, and daylilies.

Now that I am thinking about it, I'm sure that the amendments will make the difference. I have three rose bushes planted about twenty feet from the corner, and the soil is completely different. It is rich and black, not slick and brown. I've added a bunch of stuff to the area the roses are in. Yesterday, I was making the bed deeper and amended it more. It seems that the roses decided last year that they wanted more room, and they were leaning all over the grass. Unfortunately, my lawn care service is miserable when it comes to anything is is touching the grass. The extra depth should keep them safe. This is a picture from July 2007 with black eye susans that needed a home.

We've been there for three years, but I have never done anything to this corner, and it shows when you look at the slick dirt.

Of course Tabasco, this entire argument is moot if you don't have heavy clay.