I live in a relatively new home, many people in this new neighbourhood are having trouble growing shrubs in their backyard. We live in Manitoba Canada and I guess when they built the house much of the clay was pushed all over the yard so there may not be a lot of top soil there. Anyways the point is my lilacs are continually dying year after year and this process has been going on for 5 years. The Lilacs closer to the home have a better survival rate but I don%26#039;t know what I can do to help these plants grow. Should I dig deep down around the Lilacs to put top soil down again? Or are there other solutions? Any help would be appreciated as so far nothing or no one seems to have been able to solve the problem.
Why do my Lilac shrubs keep dying in my backyard.?
It very well could be that your soil is too heavy and one way to fix that is to amend your soil with things like:
Sand
composted manure
compost
leaf litter
grass clippings
I had heavy clay soil when I purchased my home, but just after amending it the first Autumn, I saw a dramatic difference the following Spring. Your best option would be to remove the dying lilacs and rent a tiller to loosen and mix all the amendments into a fine texture. After you%26#039;ve amended the soil then cover it with straw and water well. This will start it cooking (composting). After last freeze of Spring, remove the straw or work it into the soil and plant your new plants.
Now, having said all that, I have a slight suspicion that maybe your soil is contaminated with something especially since you said that your neighbors are having similar problems. Clay soil really isn%26#039;t enough to kill off plant after plant so you might consider taking a sample of soil to you local agricultural society.
Good Luck
Reply:First have your soil tested, for all the goodies. Macro (N-P-K) and micro nutrients. And get a good idea of the clay sand silt balance. Then you can figure out what needs to be added, or if you should just go with some raised beds. Be sure to check the pH of the soil. The pH can make lots of difference.
The soil is probably compacted. It might be worth it to get a spading tiller, or a regular roto-tiller. Spading is better because it opens the soil more deeply and does not tear up the soil as much or compact it below the tines.
Or be like me and just dig it down. Double digging may be worth it to you. But lilacs (at least mine) have rather shallow roots.
Try one of those big spading forks. They have two handles and the tines go down like 18%26quot;. Open the soil well.
A regular size spading fork would do it well enough too.
Turn in some compost.
Make sure you are not watering too much. You prob%26#039;ly have drainage problems if the soil is so heavy. Let the surface dry out before watering again.
Maybe some liquid kelp or humic acid would be helpful. They both add to the soil, and humic acid opens the pores. Gypsum (CaSo4) also open up clay soils. But, watch the pH, as these will make it more acidic.
And maybe you should check on what variety of lilac you are getting. Or try getting more info from where you buy them.. Or just get them from another place. Some varieties and species don%26#039;t want to be so cold.
Reply:Soil test time... I%26#039;d also dig down several feet and see what%26#039;s down there. It%26#039;s not uncommon for builders to shove a bunch of construction debris into an area and then grade over it, throw some sod on top and sell the house...
Some of that stuff can be pretty nasty.
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Hi, you wrote your post in 2009. I have good news: where I am writing from, it is now 2012, and I can share with you the vast knowledge gains in agri/horticulture over the last 3 years. Well, strike that, nothing much has changed. Only advice I can give, after struggling with my break-all-shovels clay for nearly a year now, is this: forget "amending" the clay soil unless you are going to do a large area (like 10' by 10' minimum). Otherwise, think about it: your clay, when wet (and even when dry) is like a wall to water... when it rains, the water merely hits the surface of the clay and then slides across the top of it in the downhill direction, eventually (hopefully) exiting your property or reaching a drain. But if you "amend" some of it, even with the widest, deepest hole you can dig, all of the clay's excess water (that its unable / unwilling to absorb) goes into your "amended" plot, flooding it.
ReplyDeleteTheoretically, I read about this, but refused to believe it, and began "amending" parts of my clay yard with the best compost, wood fines, and gypsum money can buy. The result? Constantly soaking wet, and when I dig down enough, I find standing water.
Finally, here's my advice, and the point where I am at right now in this battle: leave the clay alone and build raised beds. If this isn't an option, then plant your shrubs ON TOP OF / above the clay, in a mound consisting of your favorite soil / amendments mix. Don't dig under it, into the clay, just pretend its made of brick and you are trying to grow a plant on it, only your last pot has broken so you must mound the dirt into a pot-like formation.
One last tip I'm currently experimenting with: last month I bought a soil moisture tester, which of course brought back all "Wet" readings except in one spot, by an unknown plant / young tree. It read "Dry." How could the clay soil be dry there but wet everywhere else? Well, once I dug down, I realized that this mystery plant's root system was HUGE and thick, and I believe it was sucking out all the soil's moisture in that area faster than osmosis could replenish it.
So I'm now trying to replicate this by planting "companion," clay / wet soil-loving, deep rooted plants / weeds next to my real (of choice) plants. I'm hoping the clay-loving plant will suck up all the excess moisture and save my plants from root-rot. We'll see.