Hi i'm jan

[Arzosah]

Hello everyone!

Great to see an international community of gardeners, so I thought I'd join in. Especially as I'm interested in growing all sorts of edibles that suit my soil, and I'm not terribly bothered about where my plants originate.

I'm in the south of England, about ten miles inland from the coast. The soil is very clay-based, rhodendrons are like huge trees in my garden, which is a suburban English plot, about 35 feet long. Its got the normal patch of grass in the middle, and all the rhodendrons and mahonia down one side. On the other side, couple of buddleia, couple of rosemary, couple of lavender, and an amazing length of raspberry cane - its not really a bush, not yet, the previous owners didn't serve it well!

I bought some blueberries, which grow well in ericaceous soil, and there are lots of other fruit bushes and runners around the place. Not got any vegetables at all, yet, its all fruit and herbs. Hopefully I'm out there this Sunday (joining is a sort of New Year resolution, I haven't walked the garden since the beginning of December, with all the Christmas rush). and I know that I need to find as many ways as I can of lightening the soil.

 

[Tmann]

Jan welcome to the forum...

 

[DrCase]

Welcome to the Forum

 

[Arzosah]

Hi people, thanks for the welcome.

Tmann, oh my word your garden looks beautiful! Those raised beds! Those irrigation loops! That patio! And, oh my, those setts (thats what we call flat stones like that, the ones your path is made of, I don't know if thats just a local word or the proper one).

Interesting to see the soil at the sides of your pathway held back by layers of much bigger, rougher stones - I'm a bit of a skipdiver, and I'm collecting and recycling tiles to do the job on a short piece of much flatter soil. I'll start taking photos soon.

 

[zigs]

Welcome to Gardening Forums

Would that be on the Wealden Clay then?

 

[Jed]

Welcome Jan / Arzosah. Which do you prefer?
Yes it is a bit of an international forum. It's great to get such a diverse amount of experience and knowledge.
Looking forward to your posts here on gardening forums.

 

[Becky]

Welcome aboard! Great to have you here

 

[Arzosah]

Thank you all for such a warm welcome!

Zigs, hi there - erm, am I in the Weald? I don't honestly know I've lived here about 2 years, after living on the coast for a million years ... people round here call the area Mid Sussex, and the soil is horrendous clay - thats all I've got its incredibly fertile, though, if plants like it here.

 

[zigs]

Sounds like Wealden Clay then

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weald

I went to college at West Dean near Chichester. Know the area reasonably well.