Gardenesque

Introduction

In this section you'll find a group of plants for planting in clay soil in the Harford County area. These plants don't require a lot of additional care once they are established. For perennials, small shrubs, and evergreens I amend the soil from the planting hole with peat moss or compost to improve moisture retention and I add perlite to improve drainage. (Sand is usually recommended in books and magazine articles to improve drainage, but it is too heavy for me to use.) For trees and large shrubs, the planting soil is not amended. Except as noted in the notes for each plant, they are watered every four weeks during droughts after being established.

With summer droughts becoming more common, I'm thinking about how we can still have lovely gardens under drought conditions and watering restrictions. I think we just need to be careful in picking the plants we use as they must be able to withstand a certain amount of drought.