What to grow in shallow soil full of rocks underneath?

[Marmalade25]

Hi all, we recently bought an older home and I am starting to shape the plantings to my taste - which means as many plants as I can fit. I am coming against a rather odd situation that is leaving me perplexed. Since I do not have tons of experience, I could use some help. I am zone 6. Outside of our chain link fence (charming, I know) there is about five feet of yard between the road and the fence on two sides of the property. I was hoping to stick SOMETHING in to add interest. But after digging through maybe 2-3 inches of soil, I am finding it is 80% rocks even about a foot down. Everything from fist size right down to gravel, the rocks are every color imagineable and somewhat rounded off. This is only on the outside of the fence, inside there are hardly any rocks at all down a foot deep. I am in a strip in MA that I am guessing was effected by glacial movement because I know the area supported the gravel industry back in the day. I am scratching my head and wondering if it is from when they dug out the foundation 80 years ago. Maybe they just dumped it around the perimeter of the yard. I wish I knew why it was so different than on the other side of the fence. Alas, now I have no idea what to plant. I was at least hoping to plant a screen on one side. But I would take a few flowers or anything. Does anyone know what could possibly grown in shallow soil, which is still somewhat gravely? Ah! And thank you.

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm guessing they may have needed some fill, so... instead of paying for good fill, the contractor had some rubble dumped and skimmed over it with top soil. I assume it is very dry also? What are the exact dimensions of the area you want to landscape, and what is the sun exposure? How many hours of sunlight/day? Is there water access?

 

[Marmalade25]

Hi Lazy Gardener, thanks for reading. One side is southern, the other eastern. The southern side bakes but eastern gets morning light then shady in afternoon. There is water access, but sometimes we do have watering restrictions in late summer. On the southern side is where I hoped for a strip of screening in about 25 foot section, but there is another 40 feet there on top of that. Then maybe a total of 80 feet on eastern side. I am even wondering if those packs of perrennial flower seeds mixes would survive.

 

[lazy gardener]

Do a google search for this topic: xeriscape plants.

It will turn up a bunch of possibilities.

 

[Marmalade25]

Ah, good tip!! Grateful for experts to head me in the right direction. Thanks.

 

[lazy gardener]

YVW. I wish you the best. If you run up against a brick wall, you can always dig out some of those rocks and make rock sculptures!

 

[citykitty]

Hens and chicks do really well in rock gardens. I'm building one specifically for them out of some garbage dirt and rocks from when we built our house. There are lot of fun varieties of them out there. Creeping phlox is pretty and can grow just about anywhere. There are a lot of different varieties of succulents that grow in rocky, shallow places.

Here's a good list: https://www.bhg.com/gardening/design/styles/rock-gardens/best-plants-for-rock-gardens/

Plus, anything that blooms will be good for bees!

 

[Marmalade25]

Ooh, good idea! Maybe toss on some big rocks and little extra dirt, then eventually develop a rock garden. This plays into Lazy Gardener's xeriscape idea.

 

[citykitty]

Plus, you can never go wrong with hens and chicks

 

[bowden123]

One method of dealing with rocky soil is to create raised beds or berms for plants to grow in, above the rocky soil. These raised beds or berms should be at least 6 inches (15 cm.) deep, but the deeper the better for larger, deep rooting plants.