New yard = 2 feet of dirt over ledge. What can I plant?

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

We knew our new house had visible ledge in the back yard. But we learned only yesterday that the ledge around the peak does not subside much--the developer who graded the place told us that our yard consists of a flat extension of ledge that he covered with two feet of "topsoil." (I'm using quotes because I'm not sure how accurate his description is; it's dirt from somewhere, anyhow).

The ledge is more or less in the middle of the back yard. I'd been planning to plant a willow at the far left of our property, and other trees at the far back and side (full-size trees, like a Valley Forge elm). He told me not to plant *any* trees due to the shallow soil.

Wow.

We had to buy a new home fast when the old one sold before we formally put it on the market, and this was the only one that met our needs for a house; gardening was a secondary thought. But this is sad news, as we'd surrounded our old place's huge yard with trees of all kinds, and the new house in a development that you'd think was a former golf course--broad, slightly rolling, grassy yards almost entirely grass with no visible boundaries between them. An occasional raised bed for flowers or vegetables.

My dream is to fill our own 1/3 acre yard with perennials, a 12x12 vegetable garden, shrubs, and whatever small trees can grow in 2 feet of dirt. The large features are what I call Ledge Katahdin (we're in Maine) and an 8x12 foot shed at the back.

Any recommendations for trees (and other plants) that could survive and thrive in such shallow soil? I'm hoping to plant a wide variety of perennial flowers, two white "paper" birches, two semi-dwarf sour ("pie") cherry trees, a lilac, blueberry bushes, asparagus, rhubarb, peonies, and a tree hydrangea. Should those work? Do any trees that grow to full size have roots this shallow?

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Comments (2)

laceyvail 6A, WV
5 years ago
If your soil is really only 2 ft deep with a ledge of solid rock beneath, there is very little that will grow. Certainly no trees, shrubs, asparagus and most perennials. Even if their roots did not grow deeper than two feet, I would think they would be highly subject to the slightest drought. And a question. Does your house have a basement? How was that put in? Did they have to blast?

I'd try to figure out the extent of that ledge if it's limited. Plant out side it.
mainegrammy thanked laceyvail 6A, WV
mainegrammy
Original Author
5 years ago
Thanks. That's my great fear. Neighbors attest to the "two feet" statement, but I'm not sure they measured. It seems unlikely that a ledge would lie at the same depth across the 50+ acre span of the development. Various neighbors do have shrubs that apparently thrive; a few have small trees. The development is only a few years old. It's possible that some of those trees are doomed.

My own property has some sort of semi-dwarf-size tree that's apparently thrived despite a visible outcropping of ledge that goes out about three feet from its trunk.

The developer told me that the entirely of my own backyard is ledge with two feet of soil atop it. I do plan to dig test holes here and there (though getting all the way down to two feet across the entire 1/3 acre is beyond me). Planting outside the ledge might be impossible if that area exists only in neighbors' yards.!

He originally promised to ladle on "as much topsoil as you want," but that turned out to mean "I'll fill some raised beds for you." I wonder if he'd consider three dozen too many, LOL.

I asked him about berms the other day, figuring that if I lay out a garden path (planning an S-shaped one) I might be able to persuade him to dump soil here and there on both sides under the guise of berms, and plant my perennials in the berms. Guess I'll find out what his limits are!

Friends who have cows have offered me a trailer full of aged manure. I'll accept it gladly, but geez, it's amazing how fast the amounts of dirt provided by anything smaller than a bucket loader seem to shrink the instant you spread them. It could take ten years to build up the soil in that yard. I built new soil in a large area of our old home by ditch-composting garden refuse, (corn stalks and the like), but I won't be harvesting any corn stalks until I can get enough soil together to make a garden!

I'm feeling pretty disappointed right now. I'd hoped for a miracle, I guess. Well, there's always raised beds, extra-deep.
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