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The Himalayan Garden & Sculpture Park
This is a relatively new garden, dating from 1996, but is already showing great potential. When Peter and Caroline Roberts purchased the house and grounds there was little in the way of a garden; what is more they had little experience of gardening, Peter’s background was in the leisure industry. They were though heavily influenced…
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Garden Myths: Number 1
You must water Rhododendrons, Azaleas and Camellias with rainwater. I’ve heard this many times in hard water areas, based no doubt on the fact hard water contains lime and lime is used to reduce the acidity of soils and composts. While it is true Rhododendrons and other ericaceous need acidic growing conditions the amount of…
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Alkaline
This is a water based solution which has a Ph above 7. Most alkaline soils (also called basic soils) lie in the range 7 to 9.
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Acid
This is a water based solution which has a pH below 7. Most acid soil lie in the range of 7 to 5 though some peat soils may be lower.
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pH
In simple terms this is how acid or alkaline something is – only a water based solution can have a pH. A pH of 7 is neutral, below 7 is acidic and above 7 is alkaline. The only way to know the pH of a soil is to measure it, either by adding it…
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Sequestered Iron
When plants are grown in a soil which is to alkaline for them they suffer from iron deficiency as a result of the effect the pH has on the nutrients which are available to plants growing in it. Sequestered iron is iron in a form which is not affected by the pH and so it…
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Is lime poisonous to Rhododendrons?
The pH confusion People get terribly worried about lime near Rhododendrons, to the extent that some people insist that you should never water ericaceous plants with hard water. The problem is the whole soil pH thing courses all sorts of confusion. So let’s ignore all that’s been said before and start from the very beginning.…
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Ericaceous
This is a catch all term for plants which need acidic soil to grow in.
