I need help growing plants in my yard they keep dying.

[jam8952]

I need help growing plants in my yard because they keep dying and I'm just wasting my money buying plants.Ok everytime I buy new plants and plant them in my yard they always die.I'm sitting here trying to make my yard look good by doing some landscaping by planting some plants and shrubs in my yard and they end up dieing its just a waste of money and I water them regulary.I'm wondering if the soil in my yard is not right for growing plants.Here are the plants I bought and there dying they are ligustrum japonicum recurvifolium, ligustrum japanesa privet waxleaf privet,carolina allspice,double knockout rose bush,rosemary arp,sweet woodruff galium odoratum.All of these are great landscaping plants for yards and there dying.I'm in zone 8A

[rainbowgardener]

Hi and welcome to the forum! Glad you found us. To start with I took the liberty of moving your post into Landscaping. You had it under lawn care, but your question didn't seem to be about growing grass...

Next step is we will be able to help you better if we can try to figure out with you WHY all those plants are dying. So tell us a little bit more what happens. Do they die fast or slow, do they grow for awhile first or never grow, do they look wilty or yellow or brown, do they have any particular symptoms (curled leaves, spots on leaves, etc), have you noticed any insects on them???

Also what is your soil like (clay, sand, enriched and humusy). Do you know what the pH (acidity) of your soil is? There are some plants that just always die for me because my soil is too alkaline. How well does your soil drain. Have you been fertilizing? Tell us more about the watering. Is it possible you have been over-watering? (More plants are killed with kindness than neglect!). Sun exposure (full sun, part shade, shade). The rose, rosemary, and some of the others like full sun. The allspice and sweet woodruff like at least part shade.

Some pictures would really help; instructions for posting them here are linked in my signature line. The more information you can give us, the better help you will get.

[bullthistle]

First of all it sounds like the soil isn't being packed tightly around the root ball so you can water all you want but if the roots are expoeed to the air certain doom. When you dig a hole I always use manure and mix with existing soil and throw in some bone meal to promote root growth, then I tamp the soil down with the end of my shovel, then water, then add more soil, tamp again the water. If you follow that procedure unless in full sun and windy conditions you'll have plants year after year.