*curious one* asks: Something that will grow well in very hard soil?
Im looking to grow something underneath some “red tip” trees, no only is this area rather shade, (its does get some sun through out the day) the soil there is very hard, compacted, and can often be very dry. I had tried planting what i believe to be “dragon lillies”, it was given to me from a relative, and has a grassy foliage, and a bright orange flowering. They have not taken to the soil in the area very well. I do get some of the grassy foliage, but very, very few flowers, maybe 3 at the most, out of at least 10 seperate plants. I should add that i planted these, about 3-4 years ago now, maybe 5. I thought maybe i just needed to be patient, and give them more time. It just doesnt look like its gonna happen! I do have two “clumps” growing on either side of the end of the drive way, and they are just thriving! Of course, that area is never shaded. So i assume, that these lilys prefer sun. I do want something growing under these red tips, preferably something with coloring. I have some hosta, liriope muscari (wich gives a purple flowering), “elephant ear”, and then just a couple shrubs, growing in the large bed, up against the house. I also have another tree of some sort, that gives a purple flower, two rose bushes that both give a pink coloring, and the a few azelia (sp?) bushes which also gives a really pretty pink coloring to the landscape. With all that said, im think im looking for something of a yellow coloring, or something else that would give a nice contrast to the rest of the garden. I absolutley love daffodils, and love the idea of planting them there, but in case you havent noticed so far already,…im pretty much clueless when it comes to gardeing. As much as i love it! And im just not sure they would do well in this area, with the hard soil, and fairly dense shading. So, anyone have any ideas!?
The answer voted best is:
Answer by Hayden
just build a raised bed and fill it up with nice soft soil. i have one because where i live it is really clayey and i have had plants like nothing else.
What do you think? Answer below!
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do NOT build raised bed around a tree trunk…very damaging to tree! Most plants really don’t care what kind of soil they are in as long as they get water and food…the roots have a way of digging about in all but cement! (and even in cement, you will see plants coming up through cracks! )
well why don’t you condition your soil so that it isn’t as hard, you can do this a number of way, the best i have found is find some horse manure, has to be about a year old and been moist all the time so the texture of it is soil. you really want to fork the soil over allot keep doing that digging in as many nutrients as possible, so fish blood and bone so you get strong flowers from plants, bone meal to get good strong roots, these are both organic and not much is required. if your soil is hard because of a high content of clay you want to dig in sharp sand to break the clay up, so just keep trying to dig the soil over with a fork and keep the soil full of nutrients and then you can put in any plant with out the hassle of raised beds.
just remembered, if your soil is hard because it is so dry try using bark to keep the sun off the soil.
Hope this has helped.
Yes, yellow coloring will give nice contrast and so white coloring. It’s not easy to find yellow flowers for shade and hard soil. What I would do is planting some annual plants in planters so I can place them under the red tip trees. Easy annual plants with colors: impatiens (get all white color), coleus (get all red color). Also I’ll plant daffodils in planters, give them alot of sun when they’re trying to make flowers, move them close to the red tips when they’re in bloom, remove the planters after they done blooming. Easy solutions for your garden 🙂 Have fun.