Very Quick Draining, But Poor Nutrient Dry Soil....How to Improve???

Our soil is very, very dry and sandy and a lot of our plants need constant watering because water just drains away so quick and it's almost like you have never watered, once the sun comes out, especially at the minute with it being so hot and most of our LARGE (Well it's split into 3 bits, two are quite small, but one is quite big!) garden, which is in the sun for most of the day. So a lot of plants are struggling. Also, many plants, especially roses, are quite sickly looking and we think that's down to the poor nutrient content of this sandy/chalky soil. We do add seaweed fertiliser regularly during spring and summer and we also, for the first time since moving here a year and a half ago, added some well rotted horse manure to the whole garden, back in the early spring. But I know that takes a few years to improve the soil.

So, is there anything else we can do to improve this poor soil and have healthier plants?? The only things that are really doing well are our Snowball bush (Except for aphids and tiny caterpillars eating the leaves!), rosemary, thyme, sage, lavender, curry bush, clematis, Mock Orange and Budleiha and a couple of other virburnham trees and plants that I can't remember the name of. But, basically plants that do well in poor soil and drought are doing well, whereas a lot of others aren't!

We don't have a lot of money either, so can't do anything too expensive. I'm already dreading the water bill!!

 

The only thing I can think of is organic matter, lots of it.

 

Hi,

Clematis need moisture-retentive, but well-drained soil.

Is what most say about Clematis which kind of goes against what you describe.

I wonder if your problem is more related to just the first 300mm of soil and below that it could be quiet moist and retentive ? Have you dug down to 600mm to see what things are like ?

Without actual dimensions or a pic of the area/s it hard to say what the cost would be, but concentrating on one particular smaller area and finding out how best to improve it rather than attempting the whole garden would seem the best way to start.

Is the soil in your area generally very sandy ?

Adding organic matter could prove expensive, probably more than importing a bulk load of good top soil.

 

Sally, my own soil is sandy and free draining. I live near the coast so you can guess how free draining the soil naturally is here.

However, over the years I have added tons and tons of manure, seaweed, mushroom compost, garden compost, leaf mould, etc. Initially is was all dug in but now everything is put on the soil surface in a no dig system. My garden is in 2 parts....the back now has excellent, moisture retaining soil; the front is more sandy still. Almost entirely, the garden is in full sun so I can identify with your situation

I think the most important things are two fold.....to add as much organic matter as possible. Every time you plant something make sure it is added to the planting hole. Next, plant things that suit your soil and conditions. You are including some of them like lavendar so excellent. Others like euryops, senecio, echinacea, salvias, osteospermums, pittosporums, agastaches, baptisias, veronicas, santolinas, eryngiums,,hebes,etc. etc. will thrive in your soil. Grasses too like stipa tennuissima, hordeum jubatum, helictotrichon, etc, will thrive in your soil Sally

Roses will always struggle I think in your soil. Avoid planting things that need rich soil. Go with what you have for a beautiful garden

 

In the autumn get your hands on as many bags of fallen leaves as you can. Place them on the soil or maybe better to build a leafmold cage and wait a year for it to turn into a great soil conditioner.
I do both.

 

Thanks everyone for all your replies, some good food for thought there!!

Just one more question relating to this. We saw some bags of top soil and soil improver (2 20L bags for £5) yesterday at Morrisons and wonder if this could also help improve our soil too??

 

All helps but I would use dried manure, chicken pellets and compost at planting time plus an organic mulch every time you plant.

If you, from now on, plant things that enjoy free draining soil your garden will thrive. Over this past winter those on such soils would have seen their plants survive whilst others on heavier soils lost theirs. Worth bearing in mind.

In autumn, if you can get hold of mushroom compost or manure in reasonable quantities and apply generously to your borders this would be an excellent way to improve your soil.

 

It's roughly about 75 square metres, so yes, it would work out very expensive!!!

 

Yes, will get some more manure for autumn (Well rotted was best I thought??), make some compost, organic mulch etc to add.

Will try to only add plants that like free draining soil, but sometimes it's hard because I see a plant I like reduced or something and it's not always easy to see if they like a free draining soil. So will have to try and compile a list or plants that do and try to only get them, or get more of the things that are already doing well. You're right about winter, we were so relieved to have such free draining soil through all that rain. I don't think the rosemary, lavenders etc would have survived if we had had clay or peaty soil.

 

I have very sandy soil.
If I dry it out I could use it in a hourglass.

I have managed to grow many plants in it including roses, that do very well.

For me the answer wasn't to just put organic matter all over the surface. I did that, for years, and it all just disappeared leaving me with sandy soil.

Reminds me of a very good question I heard many years ago on Gardeners Question Time.
Some one asked where all the organic material he has added, over the many years, has gone as there was no sign of it and he was left with the soil that he originally had.
The panel had no answer for him.

I have found the only way was to apply a good planting procedure for each plant.

For each plant I put in I mix a small amount of the excavated soil with MPC, manure, perlite or vermiculite and a sprinkling of Blood, fish and bone. I then use this to plant the plant and also use it to mulch the soil around the plant afterwards.

Then every year I sprinkle blood, fish and bone around every plant and I mulch them using my spent compost from my many pots from the year before.

I basically look after each plant and the immediate soil around it. I don't worry about the soil in between the plants. I worry about that when I have to plant something in that soil.

 

I was just thinking about a couple of new plants to replace the spotted laurels that we had to dig up, because they were getting too much sun once the sun got higher after winter. So I looked up plants for free draining soil and found one of them was the very beautiful black knight budleigha, but unfortunately where it would go would be north facing, so that was out of the question, according to the sites about where it likes to grow.

But, then, I also found this, which came up in another search:
Sambucus nigra f. porphyrophylla 'Eva' (PBR) | elder 'Eva'/RHS Gardening

It is so beautiful and sounds like it will suit our soil quite well! I've already ordered it and can't wait to get it, although it will only be small.