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Depth of soil for red robin

mattg4321EzyiU1kumattg4321EzyiU1ku Posts: 5
in Plants
It seems I’m not having much luck this week when it comes to finding concrete under my garden. 

I’ve just gone to plant a full standard red robin and hit concrete under around 14 inches of topsoil. It seems like it was an old shed base or something predating these houses being built in the 70’s. 

It’s around 6ftx6ft and the red robin needs to be planted near the middle to line up with the others I have planted!

There was previously a hedge there that seemed to be doing fine. Thoughts welcome. 

Posts

  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 9,626
    Could you break up and lift an area of the concrete? The plant might live but if it does, it won't be as vigorous as the ones that don't have concrete under them so it might look a bit odd.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • philippasmith2philippasmith2 Posts: 3,404
    They do like a good deep root run.  Removing the concrete is really your only option.
  • puschkiniapuschkinia Posts: 207
    edited April 2022
    We've got ridiculously shallow soil (maybe 30cm until solid chalk) and our neighbour has a photinia Robin shrub that's got to be at least 4m x 4m now (after 7-10 years). Looks great - extremely healthy. And I've asked them whether they amended their soil or raised the level and they said no. 
  • mattg4321EzyiU1kumattg4321EzyiU1ku Posts: 5
    Thanks for the input. I’ll try and dig the corner of the slab out and see if I can break it up from there. If it’s a real nightmare I may just chance it. Otherwise it’ll be a case of hiring a breaker. 

    Very annoying. If it was above ground it would be easy enough to break up!
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