Determined to fix my rubbish garden!!

[gardening2023]

I have an 80ft garden with two large flowerbeds and clay soil. It's south facing but quite shaded due to neighbouring tall trees. A few things do well - roses in particular, verbena and a daphne which somehow managed to survive a whole year (it flowers but hasn't grown much). But most things I plant - such as a big daisy this summer and a fuchsia - seem to die. I'm particularly baffled about the fuchsia as I have one elsewhere in the garden that thrives - so I thought it was a safe bet! Likewise a fern, which I thought would do great in a semi-shaded garden also died!

I'm feeling really dispirited by my lack of success and am wondering if improving soil quality might help. Like I say, it's clay soil but I make sure I break up any compacted bits with a fork (which I thought would help matters). I've just bought a big bag of manure but am unsure how much to use when planting something?

Another issue is that due to the lack of growth, a large proportion of the beds are quite bare so weeds spring up constantly. I really want to fill the soil with nice plants so the weeds have less chance to grow! I did get one of these a few years ago for some ground cover which has thrived, although it has spread very slowly. Would you suggest getting some more?

https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants//muehlenbeckia-complexa/classid.4876/sku.PL00003986/

I've just bought some crocus bulbs - is now the time to plant those and will they be able to grow in a spot that gets about 3-4 hours sun per day?

Is there anything else I could be doing at this stage in the year to improve things?

Thank you!

Clay soil can be triicky because in summer (especially south facing) they bake hard like concrete.

In winter, if it's wet, they become soggy and waterlogged. This is hard on plants that - as a very broad rule - even if they are hardy enough to survive the cold, will not like being cold and wet.

Personally, I would look for south facing plants and then, as I planted each one I would dig a hole 2-3 times the size I would normally and as I planted the plant, I'd add it 50/50 manure/compost mix to fill the hole. That way, each plant has good soil around it before it has to cope with the clay and - slowly - you should help renovate the soil. Look for each plant to have about a foot of the mix around it, before it's roots reach clay.

If you can bear the cost and effort, a 5-10cm mulch of manure or similar organic matter, each winter over the whole border will also help. Don't dig it in, let the worms do that for you. You can get XL bags delivered on pallets. This will help keep weeds down also.

Repeated over 3-5 years, you should find that also really helps the soil quality.

All bulbs tend to dislike being too soggy during the winter so I'd also stock up on a couple of bags of grit and dig a bit in as I planted each bulb. The easiest way to do this is to dig a hole big enough for a small group of bulbs together, add the grit, place the bulbs them cover them all over. Bulbs tend to look better in clumps, anyway.

Thank you for the great advice! I might invest in some XL bags of manure as you suggest and spread it over both beds. How does that stop the weeds though - wouldn't they thrive even more with all the extra goodness from the manure?

I've not heard of grit - I will look into that as well.

I forgot to add in my first post that daffodils do quite well in the garden - I planted bulbs a few years ago and they keep coming back every year. So that's encouraging.

Monty Don on Gardeners World often talks about perlite to improve drainage, he uses it in pots a lot.

Do you have a compost bin? All our peelings etc go in it, lawn clippings, and a bit of paper shredding for every lawn mowing we do. Stops it getting slimy.

The compost we've dug in to our garden over the years has really helped.

I'm little more than a novice myself so I always go to the RHS website for advice on sowing, potting, and pruning especially. It's a really useful resource.

Presumably your neighbours are also on clay, can you see what thrives in their gardens and plant similar?

How does that stop the weeds though - wouldn't they thrive even more with all the extra goodness from the manure?

As a general rule, lots of weeds are annual and so grow from seed. Lots of those need light to germinate. Seeds buried under 5-10cm of anything are unlikely to germinate and, if they do, unlikely to have the strength to grow out of the top of the covering.

You'll have to tackle robust perenniels manually but they tend to be easier - if you dig them out as they grow.

We garden on clay. The side of my garden that is in shade is a work in progress for me too. This summer I dug much wider beds and before put a thick covering of well rotted horse manure on. Left it for a month before digging over and the worms had really got to work on it. I've dug it through and repeated to really improve the soil and have now got some perennials in there in readiness for next spring.

I would buy lots of the low growing patio/ groundcover roses.

I put some into my DD's rubbish clay garden and they flowered for ages - also it was quite shady.

If you put bark chippings on top and avoid walking on it then any weeds are easier to pull out.

Personally, I would look for south facing plants and then, as I planted each one I would dig a hole 2-3 times the size I would normally and as I planted the plant, I'd add it 50/50 manure/compost mix to fill the hole. That way, each plant has good soil around it before it has to cope with the clay and - slowly - you should help renovate the soil. I have seen advice warning against that as you are making a free draining well in the clay, so all the water drains into it and sits around the roots of your plants. No idea how true that is

But an annual mulch really does improve soil quality. I used 10 - 15cm, and by 5 years the soil in my beds was transformed.

Thank you for the great advice! I might invest in some XL bags of manure as you suggest and spread it over both beds. How does that stop the weeds though - wouldn't they thrive even more with all the extra goodness from the manure? hopefully the manure or mulch is relatively free of weed seeds. So the seeds in the soil now, instead of having to grow 1-2cm to reach the surface and start photosynthesising, have to grow perhaps 10-12cm, and they just don’t have enough food reserves in the seed to be able to make it.

Agree with @TheFeistyFeminist about the value of home compost. Except don’t bother to dig it in! Why have worms and work yourself?