New to the forums

19 years ago

Hello All! I just found this message forum today searching for landscaping ideas for my new house. Wow, what a ton of information! I'm a native to the Charlotte NC area and have enjoyed gardening for years. One of the things I love about gardening is that it is a constant learning experience. I'm in the process of building a new house and the climate and soil is a little different than the red clay I've always experienced here. The soil is a sandy soil, basic sandy loam I guess you would call it. The new house is in Kershaw SC. There is actually wild cactus growing on the land now. I'm so shocked that such a short distance can make such a big difference in the soil and native plants. So I'm in search of ideas and suggestions for landscaping. The new place is going to be a blank slate, very level and few existing trees. And I have plenty of room. So any suggestions and ideas are greatly welcomed!

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Comments (3)

dellare
19 years ago
The biggest favor you can do for yourself is to get a soil analysis the next time you visit your new place. This will tell you what you are working with. I thought I had nice sandy loam that would be a dream to garden in. What I actually had was very poor sandy soil. After two years of heavily amending the soil I am able to grow pretty much what I want. Fertilization is a way of life in sandy soil specially any shrubs planted in the landscape out of garden beds.

If you have sandy loam you probably won't have a problem getting most things to grow and thrive. If you get the soil test you will know what you have to invest in first either in plants or amendments. The county I live in offers soil analysis free of charge but it is an agricultural community. I am not sure about other counties or counties in South Carolina but I think you will be happy to know for sure if your soil can sustain plant life. I know now it was silly of me to expect to plant something in the sand I have and have it grow beautifully but that had always been my experience. I had always gardened in clay soil though.

Good luck to you. You've come to the right place for suggestions and ideas. Adele
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
19 years ago
HA! I've moved from the sandy coast of SC into red clay country! (Believe it or not, I think I prefer the clay.)

Anyway, I always found the Clemson University Extension folks extremely helpful and you need to introduce yourself to them soon. Soil tests are in order, especially for a new property. They are not free in SC, but a very important small investment in your landscaping success.

A very useful web site is Clemson's HGIC (Home and Garden Information Center). Search HGIC.Clemson.edu

Here is a link that might be useful: Lancaster Country Extension
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rottie
Original Author
19 years ago
Thanks folks!! :-) I'm in an area of Lancaster county that is "classified" as agricultural. So I'm hoping they have a decent county extension office. There are lots of farm country around me and this property used to be tree farmed. I do know the very young pine that we saw 6 to 8 months ago when we found the property has grown tremendiously since we first saw them. I'm going to check out those sites and thanks a bunch!! Keep the ideas coming!!