lavender dying

by shawn
(la fayette, ga.)

We planted lavendar a few months ago and it is now dying out. It is planted in clay soil but we added "alot" of bags of soil to it and tilled it in. Any advice to saving these? We also planted rosemary herb in the same area and it's doing the same thing. Pic included.

Doug says that he hates to have to tell you but if you make a bathtub of good soil in a clay soil, you have a bathtub of poorly draining soil.

And that's not going to grow herbs in any good way - particularly the Mediterranean herbs that demand hot dry conditions with great drainage.

Let me suggest you start again, build a raised bed over top of your clay (about 12 inches deep should do it. Then install very well drained soils - (we call them "almost-gravel" here in the North) and plant in that.

But a hole in clay only hides the drainage problem not fixes it.