Bethany Nursery is here to share with you, the experiences and excitement of gardening in the Pacific Northwest!
From the first blooms of the season till the last leaves have fallen from the trees, we are here to make gardening easier, more enjoyable, and fun for the whole family!
We are open year round and offer over an incredible variety of plants and gardening supplies.
Annual and perennial flowers, organic vegetable starts, ornamental grasses, flowering trees and shrubs. A huge collection of pottery and garden art, organic soils and fertilizers, tools, seeds, and lots of products guaranteed to make your garden grow.
In addition to the retail garden center, we also offer landscape consultations and design services, complete yard renovations, and landscape maintenance services.
We hope to see you soon and look forward to helping you with all of your gardening needs!
Kith working on new garden beds at home
If you have any garden related questions, feel free to post them here in the comments and we will try our best to answer all of them. Eric, our landscape designer, has volunteered to answer questions pertaining to design and I would love to hear all of your gardening questions on soils, plants, etc. We look forward to hearing from you...
3 comments:
OK! You probably get this question a lot, but we are dealing with drainage issues in our Bethany backyard. We have had plants and trees die because the soil is so soggy in the winter and does not dry out until June, at which point it becomes baked clay. The ground is a very thin layer of topsoil over thick clay.
We are considering putting in a french drain, but we are not sure if we need to amend the soil as well to improve drainage. Or do we need to dig out the clay completely and replace with topsoil? Are there any ways to improve the soil and the drainage without carting away the clay and starting over?
Thanks!
Jim,
Great question! The main thing here is to move the water out or improve the structure of the soil so it drains properly. Carting away all that clay would be some chore and actually, clay is good...The small clay particulates make for a high CEC. link...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cation_exchange_capacity
If only clay were porous...
A french drain is the quickest fix, as long as you have a sloped grade to move the water out of your backyard.
If you don’t have the required slope (and I’ve seen yards in Bethany with nowhere to drain to) you could find the lowest spot in the yard, dig a hole, fill with river rock and cover with soil and plants that tolerate wet roots.
That being said, it is a good idea to amend your soil now. Topdressing your yard with compost will, over time, add structure to your soil. By applying compost you are 1. Soaking up some of the water 2. Introducing a food source for the organisms that live and move within healthy soils. As these tiny animals make their way through soil they actually create passageways for air and water to pass through (worms, centipedes, springtails all do this).
Getting your soil back in shape won't happen overnight but topdressing with a thin layer of compost once or twice a year is going to create a significant change to your soil's structure.
To learn more about healthy soils, keep an eye out for more post on this blog that have to do with the soil food web or search keywords 'soil food web'
Thanks and good luck with your yard!
Kith
Thanks a lot for the reply Kith! I will give it a try (both the top-dressing and the french drain) and see how it goes. In the meantime I'll look forward to more useful info on this blog!
Thanks,
Jim
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