Q: I have a rather large garden where the soil has turned to cement. The plan is to add some city compost to it and rototill it in. The clematis in our garden have been there for well over 10 years. How far away from the clematis do we need to stay so that the roots are not damaged? I would also like to take two sections from the clematis but after looking at it closely, I only see four stems coming out of the ground. Im afraid that I will damage the plant. Should I just buy some different ones to plant? A: That last idea of yours sounds like a good one. You dont want to mess with something that is as happy as your clematis appears to be. It should suffice if you stay a good 24 30 inches away from the plant. A word of caution about city compost, get it tested first. I found the compost from our city to be very high in salts when I tested it years ago. If diluted with sufficient soil, it isnt a problem. Salt toxicities begin to occur with sensitive plants if the compost volume is higher than 20 percent in the root zone. Since the compost material is collected from all over, there may be some herbicide residue that has not broken down into harmless metabolites. If it is really important to you to improve your soil, I encourage you to get some sphagnum peat moss this fall, and work it into the soil. (Source: NDSU)
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 20:00:01 +0000
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