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Newly purchased ninebark Summer Wine planted 1 week ago in full sun, clay soil (Pittsburgh). Leaf edges are now turning brown, curling, and starting to drop. I am completely new to gardening and would appreciate any advice.
Sorry but dont know the plant at all, however, will give you some hints on clay soil, Plants find it really difficult to take in moisture, food and air into the roots as these important things are needed for any plants to grow, because of the soils structure, the neutrients and food get trapped in the soil, Or, if added, washed away when it rains, they also stay very cold in winter/spring and bake hard solid in summer sun, so any plants just wilt and eventualy die.
What you need to do with this type of soil, is add lots of compost or manure, dig this into the soil, as you do this, you will notice the soil change in texture and feel much lighter as you add the compost, also add sone fine gravel if needed, so that it allows water to drain a bit, this stops the plants sitting in solid compact wet and cold earth, as you dig, try not to stand on the freshly dug soil or you will just compact it all over again, sometimes at the end of the summer growing season, people add some garden lime (it will tell you the quantity to use on the box/packet, this helps to break up clay soil and also sweetens the earth to give the roots a chance to spread out and grow into the soil rather than just sit in it doing nothing, if you add lime, dont plant straight into the soil, leave the planting for a few weeks. If you intend to make beds in clay soil, the best time to dig rhem is in the autumn, just remove any weeds, and dont bother to flatten any big clumps of earth, let the frost and any rain break up the soil for you and come spring, it will be easier for you to dig as clay soil is quite heavy going as you did.
Clay soils are hellish to get into good condition for most plants, however, if you just work on a small bit at a time, you wont be so discouraged, try going to the librery for a book on gardening for beginners and you will be quite surprised at the information that will all make sense to you, it just takes time to learn the basics and the fun begins to show soon as your plants start to grow, so good luck and enjoy. WeeNel.
WeeNell, Thanx for your response. I took your advice and bought a mix of mushroom compost, leaf mold, coarse sand, with some lime in it and worked it into a bed that was dug up last fall. The area is in part shade (about 4 hours of morning sun). This morning we planted low bush blueberry shrubs, 2 maple leaf viburnums, and an oakleaf hydrangea from the nursery. Before adding the compost, the clay soil was still wet several inches deep from rain two days ago, so I'm anxious to see what happens. Also bought several books. I was feeling discouraged because last spring was the first time we ever planted anything and the heucheras, berberis monler's gold, and poppies were dead by the end of June and a butterfly bush which did beautifully all last summer was completely dead this spring.
So glad that you started to break up your clay soil by adding compost to it, you now know, after digging once you had heavy rain that your clay soil holds a lot of water as it dont drain away and in heat it bakes, a hard crust covers the surface, so the plants you had in last year, prob got baked also, now you know all this, for future, when you plant, go much deeper than the plants need, add lots of compost, even throw in some gravel and it will eventualy help ALL you new plants, you will get to know how to handle this soil as you gain experience, and you will really enjoy your gardening even more, all you have to do is be patient, dont expect everything to grow first time, but you will learn the symtoms of trouble and be able to corect it earlier, Yor doing great and all the right things, so good luck and stick with it, soon your gona be so proud of your hard work, happy gardening and take it bit by bit. WeeNel.
