Gardening on limestone
 

Hello
I've been trying to find out about gardening on limestone. Especially
vegetables and fruit.

Anyone here do that?
Hints - tips - experiences please :~))

--
Jenny
(Rotterdam the Netherlands)
remove the squirrel to reply

Gardening on limestone
 

In article , Martin
writes
On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 12:09:02 +0100, "JennyC"
wrote:

Hello
I've been trying to find out about gardening on limestone. Especially
vegetables and fruit.

Anyone here do that?
Hints - tips - experiences please :~))

AFAIR Franz did. Search the archives?


Would that be like in the Chilterns Jenny? Do you mean chalk or bedrock?

Janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

Gardening on limestone
 

"Janet Tweedy" wrote in message
...
In article , Martin
writes
On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 12:09:02 +0100, "JennyC"
wrote:

Hello
I've been trying to find out about gardening on limestone. Especially
vegetables and fruit.

Anyone here do that?
Hints - tips - experiences please :~))

AFAIR Franz did. Search the archives?

Would that be like in the Chilterns Jenny? Do you mean chalk or bedrock?
Janet Tweedy

I don't really know the Chilterns.....And I must admit that I don't know the
difference between chalk and limestone. Actually I didn't know they were
'related' !!
Nick ????

But I don't think its chalk in the area of the Dordogne I mean.

Found this about the Dordogne ......... 'the limestone is lacustrine'.
The limestone in the area is full of fossilised sea creatures.....

http://jersey.uoregon.edu/~mstrick/A...oQuerry50.html has a good
explanation and I'm sure I mean limestone :~))

Jenny

Gardening on limestone
 

In article ,
JennyC wrote:


I don't really know the Chilterns.....And I must admit that I don't know the
difference between chalk and limestone. Actually I didn't know they were
'related' !!
Nick ????

Why me? :-)

The answer is that all were formed from the shells of diatoms,
shellfish etc. If it was merely deposited and the water driven
it became chalk. Exposed to heat and pressure, it became limestone.
Exposed to more, it became marble. Chalk is a sedimentary 'rock';
the others are metamorphic rocks.

From a gardener's viewpoint, the only useful difference is between
Dolomitic limestone, which contains a high proportion of magnesium
and ordinary limestone, which is almost entirely calcium carbonate.
The former is much less hostile to calcifuge plants.

In practice, the answer is shovel on plenty of shit, compost etc.
and don't bother with the real lime haters. Otherwise, most things
will grow. The downs are not exactly barren :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Gardening on limestone
 

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...
In article ,
JennyC wrote:


I don't really know the Chilterns.....And I must admit that I don't know the
difference between chalk and limestone. Actually I didn't know they were
'related' !!
Nick ????

Why me? :-)

Because I regard you as a font of all knowlegd on stuff like this (and most
other things too!) :~))

The answer is that all were formed from the shells of diatoms,
shellfish etc. If it was merely deposited and the water driven
it became chalk. Exposed to heat and pressure, it became limestone.
Exposed to more, it became marble. Chalk is a sedimentary 'rock';
the others are metamorphic rocks.

From a gardener's viewpoint, the only useful difference is between
Dolomitic limestone, which contains a high proportion of magnesium
and ordinary limestone, which is almost entirely calcium carbonate.
The former is much less hostile to calcifuge plants.

In practice, the answer is shovel on plenty of shit, compost etc.

Ha - its 50yrds from the nearest road access, so I's better strat eating my
spinach every day........

and don't bother with the real lime haters.

I'm thinking yuccas, day lillies, willowing grasses, vebascums,
gladioli..........

Otherwise, most things will grow. The downs are not exactly barren :-)
Regards, Nick Maclaren.

Jenny

Gardening on limestone
 

In article ,
JennyC wrote:


Because I regard you as a font of all knowlegd on stuff like this (and most
other things too!) :~))

I suppose that I am a bit of a mental pack-rat :-)

In practice, the answer is shovel on plenty of shit, compost etc.

Ha - its 50yrds from the nearest road access, so I's better strat eating my
spinach every day........

Yup.

and don't bother with the real lime haters.

I'm thinking yuccas, day lillies, willowing grasses, vebascums,
gladioli..........

I think that they are OK. Most books say if a plant doesn't like
lime. Most clematis, for example, positively like it.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Gardening on limestone
 

On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 21:25:52 +0100
"JennyC" wrote:


"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...
In article ,
JennyC wrote:

[]
and don't bother with the real lime haters.

I'm thinking yuccas, day lillies, willowing grasses, vebascums,
gladioli..........

Otherwise, most things will grow. The downs are not exactly barren :-)

And neither is the Dordogne!

There are lots of interesting field maple cultivars that will
thrive.

So, Jenny: does this mean you've signed???

-E

--
Emery Davis
You can reply to ecom
by removing the well known companies

Gardening on limestone
 

On 12/3/06 20:21, in article , "Nick
Maclaren" wrote:

In article ,
JennyC wrote:


I don't really know the Chilterns.....And I must admit that I don't know the
difference between chalk and limestone. Actually I didn't know they were
'related' !!
Nick ????

Why me? :-)

The answer is that all were formed from the shells of diatoms,
shellfish etc.snip
It's both interesting and strange to go to Les Baux in Provence and see
limpet shells in this very high, mountainous village.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
)

Gardening on limestone
 

On 12/3/06 23:26, in article ,
"Dave Poole" wrote:

Sacha wrote:

The answer is that all were formed from the shells of diatoms,
shellfish etc.snip

It's both interesting and strange to go to Les Baux in Provence and see
limpet shells in this very high, mountainous village.

As a kid, I was fascinated to see the fossil shells (ammonites etc.)
in the limestone walls surrounding Dudley Castle. The stone was
locally quarried and formed under the warm, tropical seas that covered
the region during the Silurian period well over 400 million years ago.
I also found it strange to see what were to all intents and purposes;
sea shells on the top of one of the highest hills in the area. Its
all to do with the earth folding and pushing upwards as tectonic
plates move about. I'm told you can find similar on Everest - now
that is some distance from any sea bed!

I'll take your word for that. Even though I did meet Sherpa Tenzing on a
week end visit to a friend in Surrey. Makes me wish I'd thought to ask him
more searching questions!
Les Baux is wonderful, IMO and I loved it but I really was fascinated by
these darned limpet shells. They were in so many bits of rock, steps, walls
etc.
--
Sacha

Gardening on limestone
 

Sacha wrote:
[...]
I'll take your word for that. Even though I did meet Sherpa Tenzing
on a week end visit to a friend in Surrey. Makes me wish I'd thought
to ask him more searching questions!
Les Baux is wonderful, IMO and I loved it but I really was fascinated
by these darned limpet shells. They were in so many bits of rock,
steps, walls etc.

Hey! But wow! That is one seriously enviable name to be able to drop!
Tell me, I've always wondered how good Tenzing Norgay's English was.

--
Mike.

Gardening on limestone
 

In message , JennyC
writes

I don't really know the Chilterns.....And I must admit that I don't
know the difference between chalk and limestone. Actually I didn't know
they were
'related' !!
Nick ????

But I don't think its chalk in the area of the Dordogne I mean.

Found this about the Dordogne ......... 'the limestone is lacustrine'.
The limestone in the area is full of fossilised sea creatures.....

http://jersey.uoregon.edu/~mstrick/A...oQuerry50.html has a
good explanation and I'm sure I mean limestone :~))

Jenny

Chalk is a form of limestone. I'd have to hit the petrological textbooks
to remind myself what the petrological definition of chalk is. (The
stratigraphic definition (The Chalk) refers to the widespread
fine-grained limestone of Upper Cretaceous age found inter alia in
England (South Down, North Downs, Salisbury Plain (IIRC), Chilterns,
East Anglian Heights, Lincolnshire Wolds, Yorkshire Wolds) and
northeastern France.)
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley
http://www.malvaceae.info

Gardening on limestone
 

Nick Maclaren writes
In article ,
JennyC wrote:


I don't really know the Chilterns.....And I must admit that I don't know the
difference between chalk and limestone. Actually I didn't know they were
'related' !!
Nick ????

Why me? :-)

The answer is that all were formed from the shells of diatoms,
shellfish etc. If it was merely deposited and the water driven
it became chalk. Exposed to heat and pressure, it became limestone.
Exposed to more, it became marble. Chalk is a sedimentary 'rock';
the others are metamorphic rocks.

Limestone is sedimentary.

I think the difference between chalk and limestone is the organisms
which go to make it up.
--
Kay

Gardening on limestone
 

In article , JennyC
writes

and don't bother with the real lime haters.

I'm thinking yuccas, day lillies, willowing grasses, vebascums,
gladioli..........


Viburnum do very well Jenny, I try not to fight alkaline conditions, you
end up dispirited ........

Janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

Gardening on limestone
 

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...
In article ,
JennyC wrote:
I'm thinking yuccas, day lillies, willowing grasses, vebascums,
gladioli..........

I think that they are OK. Most books say if a plant doesn't like
lime. Most clematis, for example, positively like it.
Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Right !!
I didn't know that :~)
I've never had much luck with them before
Jenny

Gardening on limestone
 

On 12/3/06 23:41, in article , "Mike Lyle"
wrote:

Sacha wrote:
[...]
I'll take your word for that. Even though I did meet Sherpa Tenzing
on a week end visit to a friend in Surrey. Makes me wish I'd thought
to ask him more searching questions!
Les Baux is wonderful, IMO and I loved it but I really was fascinated
by these darned limpet shells. They were in so many bits of rock,
steps, walls etc.

Hey! But wow! That is one seriously enviable name to be able to drop!
Tell me, I've always wondered how good Tenzing Norgay's English was.

It was a long time ago but from what I remember, though not exactly fluent,
we could certainly communicate. I don't recall any translating going on.
The friends we were staying with had been friends of his for years, and the
wife was my son's godmother which is how the whole thing came about. They'd
rather taken him under their wing in terms of his visits to England and IIRC
to Singapore, where they had also lived. I think that's how they met him
originally. June had helped to smooth his path when he gave talks or met
various dignitaries and had to some extent funded such things for him, too.
She'd even taken him to a dentist who had been very interested to know what
effect his way of life and diet had had on his teeth! I think he needed one
filling which possibly says something about having an almost sugar free
diet! I remember he'd brought some very special tea with him as a present
for his hosts and politely but firmly dissuaded me from adding milk to it!
It was a sort of joke that he didn't, officially, know how old he was
because his birth had never been registered in any formal way. He knew he'd
been born in the Year of Whatever-it-was but said he might be twelve years
older or younger than he thought he was. ;-) He was a very calm, quiet sort
of man with a lovely sense of humour and absolutely no 'side' to him at all.
I remember that he gave my small son a copy of his biography with a Tibetan
phrase in it which sounded something like Tashy Delly. IIRC, that
translated into WTTE of 'long life and happiness'. I don't think Tenzing
could write anything other than simple things like that and his own name.
Just the other day, while going through some old trunks in his Jersey house,
my son found a photograph of himself at the age of about two, in Tenzing's
arms and emailed it on to me, so that's going into a special frame.
Tenzing's son also became a Sherpa from what I remember reading but whether
he still is I don't know - he might be too old for that himself by now
because when we met Tenzing it must have been around 1978, I think.
--
Sacha