Home ground: It's all about location

Rugosa roses are great for sandy shore soils. — Dale Calder/Flickr

Everyone seems to be house-hunting just now, and you can bet they're not thinking too much about the ground their prospective new homes occupy. But then, maybe they're not gardeners.

Like most people, they're thinking about the number of bedrooms they need, the reputation of the local school system, the degree of grand larceny involved in the local real estate taxes. For most people, the quality of the soil in the back yard is way down the list. But if you garden, few things will more profoundly affect your aspirations in the new homestead.

When you find the house of your dreams, you'll probably take what you get when it comes to the earth under your feet. You might have good garden fortune, you might have a Serious Challenge on you hands. This is what I call the luck of the soil.

Sometimes, you know what you're getting into. Do you buy a house at the Shore and expect something other than fast-draining, sandy soil? Do you locate on the stony heights of Sussex County and expect something other than lots of rock? Do you live along a flood plain and not expect mud and wet? Gee, I hope not.

Sure, you can amend soil in gardens and flower beds, you can plant in containers, you can make raised beds filled with premium mix. But to a large degree, you'll have to learn to live with the ambient soil type. It's part of the deal. It is the real estate.

The trick here is to understand the soil and identify plants that will do well in what you've got. The old maxim "If life hands you lemons, make lemonade" applies; there's a plant for every place, and every place has a plant that can cope.

My first house was located near the coast in an area of acid, sandy soil. Most of the trees were oaks, whose fallen leaves helped keep the acid content high. But it was really cozy, my tiny house on a one-lane road. Before development encroached, I lived in a hidden bit of woodland within earshot of the whippoorwills that raised their haunting cry every summer evening.

Using leaf mold from under those oaks to enrich the soil, I did well with rhododendrons and azaleas, daffodils and lilies, ferns and hollies. Growing a lawn was tough, since nutrients also leach out quickly in fast-draining sandy soils. I did spend big bucks for loads of top soil to support a small lawn, but frankly it needed more watering than I could provide, especially with a shallow well.

It was an uphill battle all the way, but I refused to install a "lawn" of colored gravel as some people in coastal areas do. The grass was OK, but never enviable. I had other compensations, like great birding and — on quiet nights with an easterly breeze — the far-off boom of the ocean.

I live now on rich river-bottomland and garden in a highly-prized loam, reddish in color due to a high iron content. Not surprisingly with dirt this good, I'm surrounded by farms and orchards, cornfields and sod fields. The house was a beat-up old thing, but the gardening possibilities made my eyes go large.

Primroses and water iris at streamside. — diamond geezer/Creative Commons

The first year I had a garden, I had a sort of freakish problem — everything grew much, much bigger than it was supposed to. I had Shasta daisies that grew nearly 4 feet tall and zinnias that could look me square in the eye (and I'm 5-foot-9). Yikes! Thank God I had no yen for sunflowers . . .

Most every property has a number of different micro-climates, and this plot is no different. It's not without its problems.

To the rear, I have a stream bank to deal with and a bit of boggy freshwater wetlands. This is not a big deal for shade-tolerant plants that perform well with wet feet: ajuga, astilbes, hosta, Siberian iris, ferns and forget-me-nots. Columbines and bee balm (Monarda) are doing fine in the damp, and yellow flag irises can grow right in shallow water.

At the other end of the spectrum, I have areas planted at the top of a retaining wall out front where the late-day sun bakes the ground from the southwest. It's a dry, hot spot where I concentrate some drought-tolerant sun worshippers: the sedum `Autumn Joy,' lamb's ears (Stachys lantana), black-eyed Susans and rock garden plants like basket of gold (Alyssum saxatile) , candytuft (Iberis) and sea thrift (Armeria) .

The secret to success in this situation is to use plants that are drought-tolerant and can survive in soil that won't hold moisture. Most herbs, succulents like the sedums and plants with deep taproots like butterfly weed and ornamental grasses will do just swell.

My point is that there is no reason to despair, no matter what sort of place you garden. Here are a few more ideas for specific sites:

Swampy soil: willows, including the shrubby kinds with colorful stems (like Cornus alba and sericea) ; bald cypress; tulip tree; red maple; summer sweet (Clethra) ; swamp azalea; monk's hood; Joe Pye weed; cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) ; marsh marigold; dog-tooth violet.

Seaside locations: Japanese black pine; bearberry; butterfly bush; sea buckthorn; firethorn (Pyracantha) ; rugosa roses; hydrangea; flowering onion; coreopsis; bittersweet; stokesia; yucca.

Woodlands: birch; redbud; dogwood; ash; mountain laurel; rhododendron; azalea; viburnum; columbine; Jacob's ladder; Solomon's seal; bleeding heart; foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) ; woodland phlox (Phlox di varicata).

Limey soils (unusual in New Jersey, but found in the rocky Northwest Highlands): Sugar maple; golden chain tree; cherries, plums and peaches; bottlebrush buckeye; broom; forsythia; santolina; lilacs, German iris; pinks.

You'll have the best shot at gardening success if you try to match plant and place. Remember the guiding wisdom, "Location, location, location." Wherever you are, there are plants that will feel right at home.