Although many plants you grow in your gardens are happy in almost any soil, there are some which will only grow well in acidic soil. Luckily for us, most of the soil in our local area is quite acidic already, but boosting your plants with ericaceous plant food and compost will help them to succeed.
Some common acid loving plants include:
Rhododendrons
Azaleas
Magnolias
Pieris
Heathers
Even if you don't have acidic soil naturally occurring in your gardens, you can still grow these flowering favourites either in containers with ericaceous compost, or some additional ericaceous feeding!
How do you know if your soil is acidic?
Soil testing kits are easy to use to test the pH levels of the compost in your gardens. If you have children, it is a great little science experiment! Most plants prefer a pH of 6-8, but for acid loving plants, the lower the pH the better!
Don't let seeing or hearing the words 'ericaceous' or 'acid-loving' put you off, they're really just as easy to grow as your other garden plants. Ericaceous compost blends are so good these days that they are sure to succeed!
For any help or advice with growing acid loving plants, please ask any of our plant area experts!
** Don't forget to use Westland BOOST to help the new Peat Free composts retain water and nutrients better.