Don’t neglect your soils
Richness and structure are vital
■ You can feed your plants all you want, but if your soil isn’t up to scratch they won’t do their best.
■ Sandy and chalky soils are light and thin and poor at retaining water, which means that many of the nutrients they contain are easily washed away.
■ Clay is heavy and claggy and slow to warm up in spring (unlike lighter soils), but is usually rich in plant nutrients.
■ Improve soil by digging in lots of well-rotted organic material, such as compost or manure. You can also buy commercially-produced soil improvers from most garden centres.
■ These bulk up light soils and improve their water-retaining properties, and makes clay easier to work.
■ Organic matter such as compost, poultry manure and seaweed are good for the soil, but do contain lower levels of nutrients than fertilisers.
■ However, you can save yourself a lot of money by making your own compost from garden waste (grass clippings, spent flowers, prunings), fruit and veg peelings, and torn up or shredded paper and cardboard. Never add cooked food or pet waste to your compost heap.