Do I have to mix top/garden soil with GA clay to plant shrubs?
Question by : Do I have to mix top/garden soil with GA clay to plant shrubs?
We live in GA and we are redoing the landscaping in the front of our house tomorrow. We pulled the old shrubs and bushes and we are going to replace them with those purple leaf bushes (sand cherry or people refer to them with other names) and some other shrubs to accent. Do we have to mix any top soil or garden soil in with the ga clay dirt or can plant directly in the dirt?
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2 Responses to Do I have to mix top/garden soil with GA clay to plant shrubs?
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the best thing to do is to remove all the big clumps of clay. you want to mix in some good tree and shrub soil with the existing soils. you can mix top soil with premium soil and keep it watered.
Flyinghdsod
January 20, 2012 at 5:54 pm
Yes and no. Don’t you love those precise answers? Today’s thinking, at least with trees is not to amend the soil, but rather dig a super wide, not deep, hole as the oxygen is the missing ingredient with clays. Opening the soil allows oxygen back in. Also digging and amending tends to make the “perfect” soil in the planting hole roots don’t want to move out into the “icky” compacted stuff. The roots go round and round within the hole.
Now to you: You are putting plants back into an area that had existing plants, the ground is getting well mixed…..as well as compacted. If you were to add compost over the top of the whole area (at least 2 inches over the whole area), dig it in, set your soil level for proper drainage away from the house…………and then add your new plants, it would be better. You have established a planting bed, not individual “pots.”
I prefer compost as you are adding nutrients back into the soil. “Top soil” varies greatly, you never really know how good it might be. Since this is a previously planted area, you need nutrients. I’d also throw some balanced (NPandK) over the area as you dig in the compost. This is your chance to get the plants off to a good start, not just shove them into a hole.
fluffernut
January 20, 2012 at 6:22 pm