woodland gardens in high PH

14 years ago

I'm trying to start a woodland garden in a soil with high PH. The PH of my soil is around 7.5, and the main tree cover is green ash, mulberry, slippery elm, and hawthorne. There are a few scruffy shrubs, mostly honeysuckles, and the area is overgrown with grass and weeds.

There really aren't any existing wildflowers (except for yellow trout lily-seems to like the soil), just weeds - especially those annoying weeds with the little fuzzy burs that stick to anything that rubs up against them!

I'm trying to focus on native plants - Obviously, acid-lovers are out of the question (At least without tons of sulfur).

I'm thinking of replacing some of the trees, as they are poor in form and starting to die off.

Any suggestions?

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Comments (2)

fatamorgana2121
14 years ago
Jimbob- are you in the northeast? Or another region/State? Also, is the location full shade or partial shade? It will help to make suggestions.

FataMorgana
jimbobfeeny
Original Author
14 years ago
Probably should've mentioned. I'm in Central Indiana - The garden is in a low spot along a major creek, which floods from time to time. The soil appears to be nice, loose loam-you can dig into it with bare hands even without working it. The only major issue is the high PH.

I've already planted a few leatherwoods for shrubs, as well as a few spicebushes and viburnums.

I'm just wondering what needs to be done - find plants that will tolerate the neutral soil, or amend the soil with peat, sulfur, etc. to bring the PH down. Most of my other gardens are in soils ranging from 5.6 to 6.5 in PH - the woodland area gets flooded occasionally, which deposits agricultural lime, thus raising the PH.

Maybe I should just start from scratch on higher ground - unfortunately, the soil is a bit poorer on the higher areas!
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