planting in rubbish soil

[ilovesushi]

I have a south facing border along a sheltered wall. The soil is awful - dry, dusty, rubbley - and I can only get a spade in about half way down the blade. I have dug it over year after year, added compost, manure but it's still awful. The only things that I have planted that have thrived are a fig tree, a grape vine, bridal shower bush (that's at the end with better soil), black eyed susans and fennel. Salvia, yarrow, even lavender just dies.

In a hopeful mood I bought a load of perennials for this border, but I can hardly get the spade in. I think I just wasted my money and if I manage to dig a hole big enough around the roots, they will just die. I have another flower bed which is less sunny where the soil is decent that has some gaps, so I could put them there, but it is less visible from the house and I got these specific plants because they like full sun and I would be able to see them from the house. Arrrggghhh!

Just wanted to share my pain, but also what would you do?

I have very dry dusty rubbly soil here too (new build with terrible soil!) and in full sun i've managed to grow cistus, hardy geraniums, rose campion, lamb's ear, mexican fleabane, pinks, scabious, roses, flowering currant, thyme, oregano, birds foot trefoil, sedums. Apparently plants with silver leaves are particularly drought tolerant too :)

That said, i've also managed to grow salvia, yarrow and lavender here, so maybe mine has a bit more moisture, i did dig in a lot of compost and manure when we first moved in so I think that's definitely a big help!

I've got very similar soil to you in parts of my garden, and I feel your pain- its so frustrating! I've dug so much rubble out of my garden, but it never seems to end. I probably should have put raised beds in (it would have been an awful lot easier in the long term!) However, like you I had established plants that I didn't want to lose. You can get a special spade for poor soil, it has a pointed end that makes it easier to dig- I've found that helps a bit. Or you could take a leaf out of my neighbours' book and just use a pickaxe! It seems to work well for them and I've been sorely tempted myself!

I know its tempting when the soil is so hard to dig the smallest hole that will fit the roots in, but the standard advice to dig a hole twice as big as the root ball becomes even more important when you've got such poor soil, as does the advice to soak plants before you plant them. Once I've managed to dig a hole for planting I add some Mycorrhizal fungi, lots of well rotted manure, and then use a garden sieve to backfill the hole, meaning I'm able to lose a lot of the stones and rubble quickly (which is usually literally about half of what I've managed to dig out!). I'm able get manure for free from a local stables and I get through loads of it a year- I use it pretty much every time I plant something, and I top dress the borders with bucket loads in the spring. I've also started saving leaves that fall in my garden to make leaf mould- I literally just bag it up in a bin liner, stab the bag with a garden fork, damp it down, and then leave it to rot down in a corner somewhere. Its very low maintenance to make and seems to help the consistency of the soil. I've also noticed that the part of my garden that has an overhanging deciduous tree has the least bad soil in the garden, so if I'm cutting anything back or deadheading I tend to just leave things where they fall now- a whole lot less work and I figure the more organic material I can get into the borders the better!

Another thing I've found is that the really poor soil sections of my garden seem to dry out much more quickly than the rest, so make sure you're watering lots whilst plants are getting established, way more than you'd think; and also mulch them to make sure they don't lose too much moisture during these hot conditions. I also feed generously every fortnight with MiracleGro during the growing season- it would probably be complete overkill in any other garden, but slowly it does seem to be paying off.
There was a show garden at Chelsea this year inspired by gardens with very poor soil that it might be worth looking up for some inspiration. And when all else fails scatter some native wildflower seed or plant guara or native dog roses- they'll all look lovely, and will cope with poor soil.