RE: Flat terrain, heavy clay soil, and slow drainage

Ben:

This is exactly the situation in my garden.  In some cases, we did rip out the old and try to do a bit of raising the grade in a few places, but in others it was not practicable.  So, my philosophy has been to try things in those areas, and when they don’t survive the wet winter, they’re a goner.  Our problem is compounded by a very deep layer of hardpan which requires a rented jackhammer to penetrate for tree planting.  But that is hardly do-able for the entire garden!  Consequently, plants that survive in my site have to manage a once a week watering when temps rise over 100F AND very wet soil conditions during the rainy cool season.  These plants are real troopers, and while I haven’t been able to grow everything I have wanted, there are certainly enough things that thrive.

Karrie Reid

 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-medit-plants@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-medit-plants@ucdavis.edu] On Behalf Of Ben Wiswall
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 11:31 AM
To: medit plants forum
Subject: Flat terrain, heavy clay soil, and slow drainage

 

Hi all,

For those of you fortunate enough to have attended the MGS Annual Meeting in Carmel last weekend, I hope it was a blast.  I would have loved to attend, not least so as to meet some of you face to face, but a family wedding (and a houseful of out-of-town relatives) kept us otherwise engaged.

 

I did manage to get a copy of Olivier Filippi's book at Amazon.com, and I've been slowly devouring it since.  I like his philosophy, but don't think I could have a garden entirely without irrigation where I live:  Montpellier is considerably greener than Los Angeles, and a no-irrigation garden here would be as austere as the grounds of a Zen monastery.  Without the moss.

 

One thing Olivier brings up is the importance of good drainage, and how he achieves this by trenching out for gravel paths, then using the excavated soil to raise the level of adjacent beds.  A brilliant idea for a brand-new garden, but I can't raise the beds now without tearing everything out, so it's not an option.  But it got me wondering, what mediterranean plants will do well in clay soil with slow drainage?  The soil is a natural phenomenon, surely some plants will do well in clay.  And if you are careful about watering, or rather not watering, shouldn't you be able to grow a decent waterwise garden even in flat clay?

 

Just wondering

-Ben Armentrout-Wiswall

 

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