Once you have figured out what plants you want to use, where you want the garden, and all those other little details, all you have to do is start your garden. Unfortunately, there is one problem that many people find themselves faced with at this point in time, and that is a soil problem. One of the more common types of these problems is trying to figure out how to make gardening in limey acidic soil work. There are a few ways that you can do that, but you will need to do a bit of work, or at the very least change your mind about what you are planting.
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2015-10-21 11:33:55
Jammies
Re compost - remember normal bought-in compost will almost certainly have had lime added to it - so it's ericaceous compost - or home made being careful about the additives used.
Maybe use fir-tree bark to acidify the compost - but that needs another year in the compost pile.
Alternatively
Make a raised bed - excavate about 6" of the alkaline soil, line the hole with a sheet of (cheap) plastic - and make a few holes in the bottom to avoid the area becoming a bog, unless you actually want an environment for acid loving bog plants.
Then fill the hole and heap about 12" more on-top of that - many acid leaving plants have reasonably shallow roots.
Then - decide - will you have enough rainwater or limescale free mains water to keep the area moist during the hot days as things like blueberries do not like any dry periods, and most won't like a two week drought. although lilies do like being dry rather than sodden.
And remember if the surrounding soil is very alkaline (limed, chalk lumps, or old cement) you will need to avoid too much water flow from that into the plastic lined area you have created for the raised bed area - maybe a drainage channel to guide excess water away from the acidic area.
That considered - if you like lilies grow them in tubs of ericaceous compost and repot annually using the old compost to top-up, or even expand the raised bed.
Maybe even grow some larger shrubs in bottomless tubs - but make a sump to hold water about 12" down corner of a thick plastic bag, or a plant saucer- so when you water in the summer the water doesn't drain straight through, but the plant can put roots down the side of the sump
So many things to learn to make growing acid lovers work in a limey area. - including not using general fertiliser if it has lime or chalk materials in it
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