Perennials: Rock gardening in non-alpine climates, 1 by DonnaMack

DonnaMack wrote:
I should have explained. Shame on me!

Soil conditioner improves soil texture and chemistry (ph). It increases the drainage capacity of poor soil. Good ones can \"unlock\" nutrients because they are reservoirs for nutrients. As an example, high ph soil limits the ability of a plant to absorb iron, and it turns yellow. They have lots of humus - lots of organic matter in a concentrated form, so you don\'t need much. I am on my third year of my first bag (it cost about $8.00.) It has lots of little microorganisms that make your plants happy. And it\'s organic.

Companies like Miracle Grow will claim they have it but NOOOOOOO!

Is there a good nursery or garden center near you? This stuff is not in a hardware store. My nursery carries \"Black Forest Garden Soil\". It is very similar to this.

http://www.kellogggarden.com/products/masternursery/products...

Don\'t let them sell you bags of ironite or magnesium or other stuff. Yes, those individual things \"condition\" the soil, but you need the humus and microorganisms. And you need very little.

My 7.9 soil was in Grayslake, Ilinois, 50 miles north of Chicago. It was former farmland, so for generation tractors had gone over it, creating compressed rocklike layers of \"hardpan\". The morons who build houses on it scraped off what decent soil was there, and threw down a layer of \"top soil\" (never waste your money on top soil - it\'s completely dead and has no nutrients or life like compost does) and underneath the two inches of dead soil was clay. So you would put in a plant and it would die because there was no drainage. In some places I could only dig down two inches.

Happily, we had an organic farm on site, and if you would give them your scraps they would let you take all the compost you wanted. After five years of carrying black garbage bags full of the stuff and putting it down twice a year, I could dig down two feet and I could grow anything. The shortcut is planting with lots of compost. And then the compost works its way into the soil and COMPLETELY changes its structure. Compost itself improves drainage and aeration and tends to neutralize the ph. I fling it down whenever I can.

So your shortcut is to plant with lots of compost and use soil conditioner. Cheap! Effective!

I am so happy to tell you about all the mistakes I made. So that you don\'t have to make them. This is great! We can help each other.

Donna

Here are some pics of my former garden after about 5 years. I planted most of it. In the last picture I planted all of it. Love my neighbor\'s arbor. Great backdrop. You can do this! I grew up in condos! You can do this! I know you can! Don\'t give up!