Ostrich fern likes it a little on the acid side or near neutral pH. It also like moist soil. Don't know about the other two.

hi novice_2009,

Basically when you're growing anything in your garden, your trying to re-create the conditions that plants would thrive in when they're naturally growing in the wild.

The two ferns you have that are native to Asia (Autumn fern and Japanese Painted fern) and your U.S. native fern (Ostrich fern) all prefer a neutral to slightly acidic soil in nature, so yes, it may be your alkaline soil in the spot next to your foundation that is affecting your ferns.

If you have an overhang on your roof, your ferns may also not be getting as much natural moisture from rain as they would get in the wild. Generally on a typical house with a peaked roof, the roof hangs over the edge at least by six inches to even a foot or so. Unless you stand pressed against your house and look straight up to see just how far your roof overhang is, you may not be aware just how little rain is reaching an area close to the house's foundation.

You have a couple of options open to you to deal with this problem. You could try amending the soil near your foundation where these ferns are growing with peat and compost. This could temporarily help to correct the PH of your soil to a more neutral or acid PH. However, it's debatable how long the correction will last, because any moisture that comes in contact with your foundation could turn alkaline and creep into the soil, sending the soil back to alkaline again. Your "fern spot" could become a high-maintenance area, and it sounds like you are looking for plants that are easy to care for.

Or, you could just plant these ferns in another shady spot in your garden that has more neutral or acid soil, and try a fern-like plant that tolerates alkaline soil, such as an Ebony spleenwort (Asplenium platyneuron) instead.

Eastern red columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) or Wild stonecrop (Sedum ternatum) may also tolerate your alkaline soil conditions and partial shade.

Just be sure to give anything you plant in this spot supplemental watering if natural rain is not reaching this area well enough.

There are many other plants that tolerate alkaline soil, but most of these are native to Texas, so I don't know much about them.

Hope this helps.

topie, thanks for all the info! My gut was right, and so are you. The house is old, and there's an overhang, so the only water they've been getting is saved rainwater and distilled water. Yeah, high maintence is not what I want, but LOVE the look of ferns, and this is the only shady spot where I could see them. Yeah, I can keep amending the soil, and it could continue to be on the alkaline side.
Columbines got eaten alive by leafminers, and like I said, love the ferns! I'll try peat and compost this fall. I've heard of using 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to 1 gallon water as a slightly acidic fertilizer. What do you think? Did I mention the bugs attacking everything else leave the ferns alone? I guess you can tell I don't wanna give up on them. Thanks for all the info.

You're very welcome. I really like ferns a lot too...

This year we amended our slightly alkaline areas (not near a foundation) with compost and it seems to be working well, but I'm not an expert on amending alkaline soil by any means, so you may want to post this question on the GardenWeb's "Soil, Compost and Mulch" forum and ask someone there about the best methods for getting and keeping the soil PH near a foundation more to the neutral or acid side.

You will probably get a passionate array of opinions about what to do on the "Soil, Compost and Mulch" forum. Some people say the best thing to use is agricultural sulfur. Others say that a good compost should do the trick. Some people swear by peat, and others are opposed to the use of peat for ecological reasons. Haven't heard about apple cider vinegar, but I'm sure someone else on that forum would know more about it.

A third option would be to construct a raised garden bed in this area if all else fails.

Hopefully whichever option you choose will solve the alkalinity problem. Enjoy your ferns...