I think I have rubbish soil

Afternoon all,

I have been busy pottering in my garden as you all know. I cleared a large section of it and then started doing some planting.

Before doing so I did a full clearance and forking, and worked in 2 bags of manure and left for a week. Then I planted:

• Some small but well developed clematis on a frame
• 2 rose roots
• A set of 3 lupins
• A couple of random pick ups

All of them were planted with compost in the hole, and some special food added. However none of them have taken in 2 weeks, and compared to other areas of the garden are really falling behind. The rose roots I planted in separate areas are coming along amazingly for instance, and the clematis planted in exactly the same way around the corner is looking great.

It gets plenty of sun - from around 11am until well past 5pm.

I suspect that 2/3 years of ignoring this soil has contributed. When I was digging up I found that it was very heavy and stuck together -I am guessing clay is prevalent. Over the last 3 nice sunny days the whole top has gone grey and cracked and very very dry to the touch. I watered it yesterday for 10 minutes on a sprinkler doing a full rotation and was surprised to see large pools of water forming on it which was totally contrary to the dry look it gave off a few minutes before.

So I'm minded to dig them up again and give the soil another working over. I suspect the manure was barely enough to make an impact so I'm going to buy some more and maybe work in some other stuff.

Do you have any recommendations on how else I can proceed?

 

I suspect the lupins were small...bare roots perhaps?....Cardinal Red, as with the other plants so they need time to settle in
I would leave well alone for a while and would not add further feed
No, I wouldn’t dig them up again or rework the soil
I suggest you look the other way for 2 to 4 weeks and relax. The weather, soil etc will be getting warmer and more conducive to growth. If nothing improves by then you can think of options.
You can’t really hurry plants