Nurture your soil in winter
Use winter’s ‘down time’ to improve your soil, says Ruth
INCREASED rainfall and freezing conditions can turn even the lightest soils into an unworkable morass, while heavier soils simply become a claggy nightmare.
The best course of action during the winter months is to avoid treading on beds and borders where possible. If you absolutely have to, lay a plank across the soil and work from there – it helps to distribute your weight more evenly, which is less likely to cause compaction and damage its structure.
However, November is the ideal time to dig over and improve your soil for better results next year. This is especially true for clay soils, which will then have winter’s freezing weather to help break them up and make them more workable.
Spring is the optimum time for improving light, thin soils but they can be worked now as long as they aren’t waterlogged or frozen.
Digging in lots of well-rotted compost or manure will benefit all types of soil. It helps lighten heavy clays and makes them easier to work, and also improves the moisture-retaining qualities of lighter, more free-draining soils that are mainly chalky or sandy.
Adding plenty of grit and digging it in will also make clay soils more workable and is a lasting solution to heavy soils.
It will also encourage more worms to move in. A robust population of earthworms is a sign of healthy fertile soil. They eat decaying plant material and their tunnels help aerate the ground and improve its structure.
At this time of year it is worth leaving some fallen deciduous leaves on the soil instead if raking them up. Worms will drag them into their burrows where they break down, again enriching the soil and improving its structure.