Succulent Soils
Hi,
I want to cover our sloped hill with your beautiful succulents. We just had 30 year old juniper cut off at the soil level and hauled away. Would it work to bring in two or three inches of some sort of sandy soil to put on top? What sort would you recommend?
Thanks,
Heidi
ps I LOVE your blog!
Thanks Heidi!
Meanwhile, Hap answers her question…
Heidi,
Since it is a hillside, it is perhaps easier to add fast draining soil to each planting hole rather than the entire area. Of course that is dependent on the severity of the slope, if it is not too steep spreading a new layer is easier, though requires more soil. I do not recommend sandy soil, but rather “chunky” where lava and or pumice are the majority of the mix. If you are local, you can use our Cactus and Succulent soil, which we do offer in bulk, if not you can find a local source of 1/4 inch lava or pumice (Don’t use Perlite, it is too light weight and “floats” so you end up with it all on the surface and blowing around like snow… as well as being made in a blast furnace so the carbon load is nuts) and dig it in to your soil at 50/50 ratio. Since there was a juniper there for a long period, your soil is likely very acidic, you might want to test it so you can see if you need to add some oyster shell or lime to bring the pH up.
Happy planting!
Hap
