I'd post this on the soil forum, but I know you all know the kind of soil I am struggling with -- heavy clay. I am amending it as best I can throughout my yard, but still I lose plants that can't handle winter wet. I want to put in a plant now that I know can't handle winter wet.
So for a quick fix for just this plan, should I add gravel? sand? pine bark? compost? I'm not going to "amend" the soil so much as remove what is there and put in whatever it is that drains freely, just for this baby. Thanks!
Quick question about well-draining soil
And what might this "baby" be? May be able to give you better advice if I knew :)
NO SAND! Unless you want to make cement. Compost, composted manure, pine bark or even better the soil improver made of finely ground pine bark. I had clay at my old house. The people I bought the house from had used peanut shells and that worked great, if you can find some. I'm sure you'd need to make sure they were from unsalted peanuts. I used composted manure mixed with peat about 2 to 1, which also works great and is pretty cheap. The peat may lower the ph a bit but I never saw any problems from it.
If you're going to remove the soil, just use good garden soil. They have some at Lowes that has a lot of pine bark in it that would probably be good. It's called Sta-Green Flower and Vegetable Planting Mix. They have 2 cubic foot bags for $6 something. It's in a yellow bag. Same company has a mix for shrubs and trees too.
Just keep in mind if you're digging out a hole, you're still going to have the clay around and under it so make it much bigger than you think you might need.
You are in an area that has excellent gardens. My RX.... Early this fall I suggest you locate and put about four inches of any raw manure on your garden and till it in very well. Fall leaves a foot or more will really help too. Follow this with a cover crop of rye grass. Till this in next early next spring.
Your clay will become better to excellent if you will do this for three years and then reduce to one inch of manure and lots of leaves with a cover crop in following years. Remember your clay was once at the bottom of an ocean. It is a very rich base upon which to build an excellent soil rich and ready to give you years of great gardening.
Any manure will build this great garden for you. Use of organic fertilizers will help even more. The major key is to eliminate synthetic chemicals so the biology in the soil can stay alive and build your soil. The bay will thank you too for sending less poison in its direction.
Thanks, all! This baby is a Penstemon digitalis 'Husker's Red' which a friend gave me a division of from her garden. I killed it once before. The descriptions of it say it dislikes winter wet -- but we have very very wet winter soils -- I can't keep plants that dislike winter wet alive. But I'd really like to make a little well-drained pocket for this one.
I have been gradually improving the soil overall. I have a huge 3-part compost bin, and buy huge amounts of pine bark soil conditioner. But it takes years to make a difference, as Doc pointed out.
For purposes of the Husker's Red, I'm thinking about adding a lot of chicken grit or turface to improve the drainage, which I have a lot of that I bought for container mixes. (I'm thinking about putting it in the middle-of-the-hill spot that is hard for me to reach, that I whined about on another thread.
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What Creates Great Soil?
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Any experienced grower can recognize great soil. It has a loose structure something like potting soil, a darker color that indicates good amounts of humic matter, and an "earthy" sort of aroma. These type of soils are often found in forests or undisturbed grasslands where years of decomposed leaf litter or annuals have been taken down into the soil by earthworms and other living organisms.
Mycorrhizal fungi are major contributors to this type of excellent soil, primarily through the effects of their hyphae (tiny root-threads) which fill every square inch of soil surrounding their host plants and form an inter-linked underground food-gathering web. While each individual root-thread is microscopic in size, many trillions of them can combine to have powerful effects on their soil environment. Just a gram of healthy soil can contain miles of hyphae.
For heavy clay soils, these hyphae penetrate between the densely stacked clay platelets and aggregate them into small "chunks," allowing air to enter and water to drain. This opening-up aeration of the root zone is vitally important to plants, large and small. Plant roots in clay without mycorrhizal fungi get no oxygen and are either in an "underwater" situation or in brick-hard material if it dries out.
On the other hand, sandy soils have plenty of air in the root zone, but lack organic matter and need more frequent watering. For these soils, the mycorrhizal hyphae bind together the grains of sand and form an underground "biomass" to hold water and nutrients. Desert growers from Egypt to Arizona rely on mycorrhizal fungi.
The specific material that makes great soils is called glomalin, as named by USDA-ARS scientist Sara E. Wright who discovered that mycorrhizal hyphae secrete a sticky protein that coats soil particles to form aggregates. You could think of glomalin as a sort of super glue that creates wonderful soil texture from either clay or sand. Humus is typically credited with improving soil, but it is more likely the glomalin that actually does the job. As the hyphae age and die off, they also add organic matter and nitrogen to the soil.
Personally, I deal with clay soil by adding large amounts of clean sharp sand, and when I say large amounts I mean aiming for roughly a 50-50 blend in the top 6-8 inches. This is the one and only time that I suggest using a large rototiller on garden soil. The combination of sand, some compost or ground-up leaves, dry organic fertilizer, and mycorrhizal inoculant blended into heavy clay results in a wonderfully aerated and productive soil for years to come. Late fall or early winter is the perfect time to do this one-time soil-improvement project. (And, no, sand and clay do not make concrete - no matter what you may have heard.)
Obviously, this technique will not be practical for large farms, but it makes great sense for home gardeners or market growers who want top performance from their plants. Get the glomalin busy!
Good growing, my friends,
Don Chapman
BioOrganics
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Happy, since it's only one group of plants, why don't you build a small raised bed and plant it in there? That would have well drained soil if you put the right soil in it. Since you're just trying to find a quick spot for the penstemon while you work on the long term soil improvements, that might be the easiest thing to do. You could always put a layer of gravel on the bottom if you're think it might need even more drainage.
Hart: Planting on a raised bed is a great idea, but it won't work because this is on my very steep hill -- it'd wash out unless I get it very elaborate. Maybe I'll do a primitive variant on a raised bed....
Doc: What is described in your article is what I have always done -- add sand. But I think for this one plant, I may add grit just because it'll make it even more free draining. I do have some Mycorrhizal so I'll add that. I used to add peat moss, but I've been reluctant to do that because I understand it is not quickly renewable. Now I use pine bark and compost instead. Believe me, I am on a campaign to improve the soil, but I am looking for a quick fix for one plant on a steep hill...
I've used the StaGreen potting mix from Lowe's and found it nice and yummy and chunky.
Sally: You use potting mix directly into a hole in the ground?
How about a "pocket bed" for it on that slope? Put a semicircle of rocks on the "downhill" side, then fill in with good potting mix behind the rocks. If you have big gaps between the rocks, pack them with some of the solid clay lumps from deeper in your planting hole.
Critter -- good idea -- that blends with Hart's. But I don't think I should fill the gaps in the rocks, since my goal is for it to drain. I think it needs to drain more freely that potting mix will allow, so I'll add perlite or pine bark or something.
The only reason to fill gaps is if there are any really big ones that would let your nice soil mix wash out. I've also used a bit of heavy, sticky clay against the base of the stones to "set" them in place for a pocket-garden
Ahhh you know me.....I'm always adding "grit"...anything that states "well-drained soil" gets (as stated above) a larger hole then normal...straight grit (not a thick layer but a handful or 2) at the bottom and then when I mix up my soil I add the grit and rice hulls to it along with perlite (if I have it on hand)...whaa laaa...."well drained soil."
Always learning a thing or 100 from YOUR responses Doc...thank you!!!!
sorry to confuse, happy--just saying as a potting mix I like the chunkiness of that Sta Green.
Sally: I'm big on chunky dirt. My Mom used to put her compost through a sieve (I still have her huge home-made sieves in the garage) (and actually, she often had me do it), but I use it with twigs and chunks.
Chantell: Hooray, a grit advocate!
Critter: My concern is that if I make too firm a wall, the water won't drain properly. I have the kind of clay you could easily make a bowl out of -- and the bowl wouldn't leak! Perfect for pottery. I may just have to periodically add more soil/mulch to keep the soil level correct.
Again, just chink the biggest gaps or use a bit of clay to anchor the stones here and there at their base. As long as you don't line it like a bowl, it will leak & drain. I usually find little stones for chinking, but I do pack some clay at the base to stabilize the stones, because it's a pain when you've got your little pocket built, filled, and planted, and then some rock decides to tip itself down the slope. LOL
Doc's got you going, organic, organic, organic material that's the best way. It
does take years to get good, right now settle for better. Two other thoughts are, in areas where practical, not too large and not too steep. Double digging came help improve drainage and break a hole in the clay pan. There are products that contain gypsum that helps break the clay bond, you may have to check a local ag store. Also clay does have a high negative charge, which is good in that it holds fertilizers and minerals well, but it also tends to be somewhat acidic, a 3" pot of dolomitic lime to a bushel will help. Be sure you get dolomite, burnt, or brown lime, the white hydrated lime while longer acting, can actually cause burns. Ric
Critter, That is exactly what I have been thinking about, pocket beds. There is a house near us with a steep slope and it really looks nice. I even stopped and took a couple of pics but then when I sat and looked at the pictures there really wasn't anything great about the design or plants used. So I have been thinking about what makes the slope look so nice and decided that it is a combo of the diagonal stone steps with pots on them and the stone walls that break up the slope. I didn't know if Happy would want to do any rock work, I know that access is an issue, too. But she mentioned that she wanted to plant a few things where crown depth was an issue and I thought the pockets might allow her to do that. I was also thinking about putting in good size flat rocks half buried into the hill and put pots of annuals on them. Watering could be an issue, though. Holly
I is THE Grit Grammy!!!! LOL Ohh Holly that sounds amazing....if I didn't think some day the land behind my townhouse would be bought - I'd LOVE to work on the hill there....although as you mentioned...watering might be a challenge
One of the neatest slope planting I've ever seen was done with half-buried large tires, in overlapping rows to form a retaining wall down a steep slope. The little pockets inside each tire were planted with an assortment of plants, and by the time they grew up, trailed down, etc. a bit it looked fantastic.
I've seen that, too. and you can paint them to blend in or stand out which ever suites your taste. I was thinking about half burying cracked or chipped pots, too. Hey Happy have we piled enough work on your shoulders yet. LOL
Google botanical retaining walls and see what you get. There's a place I see with that on the sign and I have no idea what it is exactly but it sounds interesting. Maybe a commercial improved version of the tires critter describes. And might be good for an idea.
Y'all are getting way too ambitious for me, but I love your ideas! I'll try to remember to take some photos tomorrow so you can see what I am up against. Usually the photos don't convey the change in elevation very effectively. Holly, I'd love to see those photos.
I thought these sites were helpful:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/25/
http://www.highcountrygardens.com/library/view/article/157/
http://www.highcountrygardens.com/library/view/article/160/
http://www.walterreeves.com/how_to/article.phtml?cat=26&id=483
http://www.bachmans.com/tipsheets/Soils/WorkingWithClaySoil.cfm
This message was edited Jul 21, 2009 12:44 AM