rrruuunnn
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Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2007 1:59 am
Location: south texas

clay soil?

the profile for periwinkles says that it will grow in clay soil. the soil is like rock. will the periwinkles grow through hard soil?

doccat5
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Joined: Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:48 am
Location: VA

If it's that solid, I think I would some add some amendments to help break up that clay a bit before I planted in it.

opabinia51
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Location: Victoria, BC

The solution to break up hard clay soil is to first add organic matter. Leaves are great, the more leaves you can add into trenches along with manure, grass clippings and so on in layers will help to ammend your soil.

Atop these "trench composts" add layers of leaves along with grass, coffee grounds, manure and so on.

Do this from year to year and slowly but surely the soil will get better.

What will happen initially is the clay will form soil colloids which are very resistant to weather and at first you won't notice much of a difference. For this reason most people like to add sand as well.

Call me picky but, I like to work with what I have but, by all means add sand if you like. But don't forget the organic matter.

And yes, I've seen periwinkles growing in clay based soil but, you will need organic matter in there as well.

doccat5
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Joined: Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:48 am
Location: VA

If you chose to use sand, get "bulders sand" it's much coarser. Otherwise it's clay + sandy = concrete!.

The more organic material you can add to the soil, the better it will be. If you don't have a compost bin, no time like the present to start one. It's a renewable resource for excellent organic material.

BOUDREAUJAZZ
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Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:32 am
Location: gloucester, ma

My mother has soil in her yard that is mostly clay. Though she does not "garden", she has some nice beds that were left by the former owners, and one is all periwinkle. It looks better than anything else in her yard! That might be an indication that periwinkle can handle clay.

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JPlovesflowers
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Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:36 pm
Location: Northwest Arkansas

Periwinkles will indeed grow in clay soil. If you are in an area where there are abundant pine trees, pine needles are a great organic matter to break down your soil. I used to mulch with them in the fall, I would buy them in bales and lay them down at about a foot depth and they settle down to a couple of inches within a week or so and then in the spring have just about disintegrated. They are an ideal soil amendment that works very fast and I believe based on what I have seen that periwinkle will like the acidic soil that the pine needles will create. Good luck! :D



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