Rocky Soil Getting You Down?

Rocky soil is the pits … the roots of your plants aren’t as strong as they need to be because they’re not getting the nutrients they need—no nutrients to share in rocks. So unless you want a 70s-era rock garden, then you'll need to do a little work.

We once had a relatively big spot in our garden with huge bits of rocks and chunks of broken up concrete where we spent over a year pulling out the rocks, and kind of gave up on the concrete chunks because they were so heavy. But we got tired of a bare patch in the garden, so we figured the best way to get out from under our rock problem, so to speak, was to build it up.

We spent two additional seasons working on the soil, trucking in a load of topsoil, amending it with a bit of humus and peat, fertilizer and compost from the garden and other parts of the garden (grass clippings, clippings, leaves, etc.).

Once the bed looked as good as the soil in the rest of our garden, we started planting ... but always kept in mind that at the root depth there were still a good number of rocks. We found great success with lavendar, alyssum, junipers, pines, periwinkle, liriope, and salvia. I found a great listing of plants for rocky soil, too.

Got any suggestions for planting in rocky soil?