On May 14, 11:18*am, Kate Brown wrote:
Judith or David may have an idea, I hope others may as well!

In our little garden in France (Dordogne valley slopes, limestone about
five inches beneath the surface) we have roses, lavender, irises, day
lilies, michaelmas daisies, sage, all abundant. *But there is one bed
where I can't seem to grow anything. It's about eighteen inches deep and
eight foot long, against a limestone drystone wall at the gate of the
garden. *It faces southeast, but in the winter it's in shadow from the
building on the other side of the path. *It gets sun from about nine to
three between April and September. *It has quite a slope. It's a dry bed
and we can't get the irrigation system up there.

There's a well-established Kerria at the top end - and I can't get
anything else nice to grow there at all! *Thistles, grasses, wild
clematis, and ivy grow with abandon. *I've tried canna, which grow like
weeds elsewhere in the village, but the snails ate all the leaves and
they haven't come up at all this year. *I sow nasturtiums, which
sprouted one year but not the next. This year I divided up a choked iris
bed and put in some rhizomes, but snails like eating their leaves too,
so I don't hope for much. *I also put in some spare daffodil bulbs, but
we're rarely there early enough to enjoy them.

Any ideas? *We're there again in June/beginning of July, and again end
of August, so anything that shows in May, June/July, or August/September
would be perfect. It has to be snail-repellent!

There's a page of photos here - the impossible bed is about ten down.

http://www.newcockaigne.demon.co.uk/photos/index.html

--
Kate B

PS 'elvira' is spamtrapped - please reply to 'elviraspam' at cockaigne dot org dot uk if you
want to reply personally

First of all, you have a beautiful home and garden Kate. I, too, have
problem areas in my garden; heavy sticky pottery clay, it would seem
that a vine would be suited to that area in my garden. For yours, you
could also try a vine, they are more than happy in a dry soil but I
don't know whether you would have adequate sunshine hours to make it
fruit, maybe? You could get one in espalier mode so that it could be
supported against the wall. Apart from that; geraniums would be
happy there, lots of different types, trailing etc and when you are
away, they tend to look after themselves. Sorry I'm not too much help
but there are others here who will advise you.

Judith