why is nothing growing in my garden? i worked so hard!!!

[mamacoffee]

hello

i spent a good few hours digging in the soil in the front garden (its about 8 foot by 2 foot bedding area surrounded by concrete). i did it roughly how monty don suggested only i did it a spades depth because i didn't have the strength to do it 2 spades depth as he suggested!

then i laid down LOADS of compost- 250 litres!

then i got planting. we put in some morrisons reduced petunias (perhaps a mistake for an inexperienced gardener not used to reviving nearly dead plants...), some good quality geraniums, some reduced lilies (they were in a good state), and i think some verbenas (good quality). also a poundland rose bush lol which only time will tell if its just a twig

i did all this over the last 6 weeks or so, plants were put in over the last month.

but the bedding plants don't seem to have settled into the soil, a few seem to have pot shaped clumps of soil below the actual plant, which are just sitting in the compost. there's the odd flower here and there but i would have thought more would have happened by now?

the only thing showing a bit of growth is the lilies, the buds have got bigger but no flowers yet....

oh, also in an amateur kind of way, i did some soil testing- i think its clay soil, good drainage, and neutral ph 7.5. there is a lot of sun in the morning (sun rises from there= east facing?), but there is a c1.5m brick wall edging the front of the border.

thank you if youve read this far! what am i doing wrong? please help! me and 3yo have put a lot of effort into this and we're really upset that nothing's happening...

patience. its still a little early and has been very cold. is your plot north or south facing - petunias need some sun? are you watering each day? once they do start flowering, don't forget to deadhead

Have you been watering regularly? They need help to get established.

It has been very cold and plants are confused and may not have started to establish after the shock of replanting. Water regularly and give it a few more weeks!

What sort of compost? And did you dig it in a bit with the original soil?
I usually plant new plants with a handful of home-made compost and a bit of bonemeal in the bottom of the planting hole, then I water them for quite a few days in a row, give them special attention until they get established.

The weather/climate this year has knocked everything back by a good few weeks though. Why don't you get some miracle-fro liquid, commit to watering them morning and evening with a solution of that a couple of times a week, and see if things improve?

thank you for your replies!!

i haven't been watering daily because id been warned about overwatering but maybe i misinterpreted the advice- i'm a complete amateur ive been watering about once a week

ghosteditor thank you, i will start to water daily and add plant food (got the miracle gro stuff) twice a week.

pfaffer i didn't dig in the compost, i just turned the soil around how id read in monty don's book, and then laid the compost on top. (he does say dig in manure but i didn't have any nor any means to get any at that stage). also there has been very little apart from weeds growing in that patch for a couple of decades!

dreamingofsun i think my plot is east facing? the sun rises from there and then sets just opposite. i thought it gets a lot of sun there, but now i'm thinking maybe the brick wall behind the plot might be blocking out the sun.

thank you!!

Hmm compost can get very dry and shrink which maybe why you've got pot shapes appearing. It will only have about 6 weeks of goodness then you will have to supplement with either slow release or a watered in fertiliser.

Did you dig it thoroughly into the existing soil or put it on top?

Clay generally doesn't drain well - in fact the opposite ...
Are you sure it's clay? When it's wet and you squeeze a handful does it hold its shape, break into clumps or crumble ?

Ideally clay should have grit added and well rotted manure to aid drainage and introduce lovely veggy matter to improve soul structure.

You could try digging in the above between your plants and keep them well watered.

Try the gardeners world forum they are very helpful to budding gardeners

thanks scumble i didn't dig the compost in thoroughly i plan to add rotted manure to the rest of the garden but this one i didn't do that way i just rotated the soil and then added the compost on top (id read about just adding compost on top on here...)

i think its clay, it clumps together and holds shape when wet. when i dug a hole i added a watering can full of water and it disappeared in less than 10 minutes though.

i joined gardeners world forum and posted something and then i didn't understand what people were saying in the reply i really am a complete and utter newbie to all this and you MNers speak in a language i can understand!!

agree with others, freshly planted looks quite bare for a while. + this year everything is a few weeks behind due to the cold.

also, do you know what was there before? maybe brambles that have been killed off with weed killer? that might have tainted the soil below. are there weeds growing between your plants?
good luck

If it makes you feel any better I watered my neighbours garden yesterday whilst they are away. She has huge quantity of pots that she keeps in the greenhouse each year and are usually flowering about now but there's not a petal to be seen yet.

mousymouse its my mum's house that we're staying in for a while, its the house i grew up in- for years there has been a lot of weeds and two random daffodils when i was younger i remember my parents digging potatoes out of the soil even when they hadnb't planted them! but that was a long time ago!

wynken that does make me feel a lot better thank you!!

Good morning mamacoffee!
What a lot of work!
I'm a bit worried you didn't dig a big enough hole for your plants and maybe didn't put any compost in the bottom of the hole and round the new plant root ball. If you find that a plant is shrinking into pot shaped clumps of soil it needs a really good soak. Get a watering can or a bucket and water the plant in so that a puddle forms around it- at least a gallon!
There are 2 ways of watering: the puddle/bucket method once to twice a week if it doesnt rain, or the gentle sprinkle method daily. Gentle sprinkle is good for seeds and little seedlings. Puddle bucket is best for plants from pots, trees and fruit. Make sure all compost is not allowed to dry out completely. If peat based compost (which I never use) is allowed to dry out, the plants can die.Once the plants establish roots into your own soil, they will be fine!

I think the petunias and verbena would do better in some big tubs or baskets - and easier to keep watered. Hardy perennials (come up every year - less effort required!) or small shrubs might do better in the soil. Look for ones that flower at different times for interest through the year.

Hope your hard work pays off!

OK because it's clay, you can dig in as much non-clay stuff e.g. compost as you like and it will only improve things over the years: you want to get a balance between the crumbly stuff and the water-retaining clay. Too much crumbly stuff (which is what you have on top at the moment): dries out. Too claggy: plants don't grow so well as the soil particles are too sticky and close together and the roots can't get through so well. Mix the crumbly and the claggy and it gets better.

How big a plot do you have? Is it feasible at all to pull up the plants, fork the compost layer and the nicely dug clay layer a bit, then replant them with fertiliser? (And then water religiously ) If loads and loads of plants I can see this would be a pain...

For the future, when the autumn is over, get a good layer of organic matter onto the soil and let it rot down over the winter. Then in spring, fork it over, maybe with a bit more compost or some bags of rotted manure. Putting a layer of stuff on top and letting it work its way in naturally is called 'mulching'. You can do this in spring/autumn around a plant or a tree, it's like feeding and improving the soil. Think of it as an ongoing job to improve the soil, and over a few years it'll be perfect for most types of plants

I'm only a novice but I chucked some fish blood and bone around my new plants and some of them have come on since then.

I think it's the lack of sun this year and also a lack of water. If it's at all sunny & dry (like yesterday) then I give all my plants a good sprinkle every evening in the summer. Only if it's drizzly (like today) do I give it a miss. You can poke your finger in the earth to see if its dry?

I think you need to stick a fork in to mix your clay & compost together a bit more, so the plants get the water and nutrients from the clay but are not sufficated by it.Sorry - I know this is bastard hard work.

I always grow petunias in pots & would worry they'd be a bit flimsy for ground cover. Is there any sign of slug damage?

Can you put in something a bit faster growing to please you 3yo? Sunflowers or sweet peas shoot up.

I think that you might have mixed up what Monte Don would have been referring to as compost - from the compost heap - and the stuff that you can buy in large bags at garden centres - very different - and the latter you do need to dig in.

My clay soil currently has the water table about 4" below the surface - so if you dug a hole it would fill up with water, not drain away - as for it draining in 10 mins !!!! The rootball is showing because its not growing roots out - probably because its just in the bought compost and hasn't had enough water - in that sort of compost you will need to water every day unless it rains a decent amount. If some of them are not yet growing in I would see if you could gently lift them up and do a bit of mixing of the soil and the compost and then replant - plant them a little low so that there is compost that will water down into the hole as they settle in with watering.

thank you everyone!

sounds like i need to dig in a bit more compost (didn't know about different types!). i think we've worked sohard to get it where it is-and our energy reserves are wearing thin now...so for now we're watering it all daily/every two days- which has made a HUGE difference, and then we'll try to dig in later in the year and do things properly next year lol

also i think the advice on hardy perennials for this patch makes sense so i think i need to research a bit more on different plants and see what we could put in there long term.

tehre are some thorns appearing on the poundland rose bush which i think is a sign of growth too so things are getting better!

thank you all!!

Another top tip: browse the Crocus website for ideas about what plants you'd like (and I'm another one who'd recommend hardy perennials, then supplement with annual bedding plants in spring if you like).

The prices are higher than most places but the photography is good and they give lots of ideas for what to plant together. You can make a list and either find the plants elsewhere, or plant some seeds now and keep them going over the winter so you've got next year's lot ready by spring. Planting seeds is a faff: seed trays indoors then pots=watering then you lose quite a few anyway...but if you've got some ornamental pots and a corner of the garden which isn't doing much then you can turn it into a sort of nursery in prep for next year.

Another top tip is to also get a couple of hardy perennials which will self-seed but not be too invasive. That way you get plants popping up where they're very happy to grow (not every plant wants to grow where you want it), it's free, gaps are filled, and you feel like an ace gardener I can recommend Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla mollis) for this. You do want to stick to plants which aren't hard to get rid of. Lady's mantle is easy to pull up but something like columbine (granny's bonnets, Aquilegia) is a bugger - pretty though.

Also if you have a plant self-seeding, you have plants to give away to other gardeners. Swapping plants is a great way to get a better garden for very little money.

Thanks for the tips pfaffer :)

Bit confused how to use a bit of the garden as a nursery, don't seeds need to be indoors first?

Yes but once they're big enough, you can pot them up and keep them watered. Many things will overwinter in a pot outdoors. You then plant them out in the spring, when they're roughly the same size as the ones from the garden centre.
I did it last year (germinated everything in a cheapo "greenhouse" thing with a plastic cover) and got a good few plants for very little money. If you're dedicated you can get a good germination rate and keep them alive. However, I am lazy so only got a few but still saved £££.

Fancy gardeners say 'plant things in threes' or 'plant things in drifts'...This is how to do it without spending too much.

Thank you! I will look into those cheap Green house thingies. Thank you again.

There are some cheapo greenhouses in Aldi for £30 at the moment. I got one and it was easy to put together. Just hoping that it does not blow over before the tomatoes fruit :)

Not all seeds need a green house. Get some poppy, cornflower and wildflower mix seeds mix them with some handfuls of soil and scatter them about. Also sweet peas and sunflower seeds come up quickly so that you can get a bit of instant(ish) gratification!