In article ,
Janet Tweedy writes:
|
| I've never done it, but I'd say chalk would be pretty well drained:
| it's a very porous rock, and soluble, so that centuries of weather
| will presumably have opened up lots of channels. I do suspect,
| though, that he will have been sold a plot which wasn't much use to
| the previous owner. He should study carefully what the locals do, of
| course: they were growing things when we were trying to terrorise
| mammoths.
|
| Well he says that it's open to the sun and looks out over the coast but
| gets little rainfall in the area.
| Is there a magical formula for deciding how big a hole to dig for a tree
| or shrub?

No, but normal guidelines will be fine. That isn't the issue.

The dryest and (summertime) hottest chalk hills in the UK are
probably just south east of here. By Cyprus standards, they
are cold and wet - in a hot summer. It is not sensible to use
rules adapted to the UK for climates so different.

I would recommend getting some books like the Sunset New Western
Gardening Book, or equivalent ones produced for gardening around
the Mediterranean, in South Africa or Australia, because some
areas in those places have a very similar climate.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.