Friend ofthe earth

John explains how compost is key if you want to help the land to help you

W e are all aware, as gardeners, that to grow plants at their best we need to cater for their own particular requirements, and that can vary tremendously.

Cacti need sandy soils with perfect drainage, water lilies need a pool of water, rock garden plants like thin, stony soils with good drainage and vegetable crops like fertile soils.

Allotment plot holders and others with gardens around their houses grow a lot of flowers, shrubs, roses, fruit trees and bushes and a wide range of vegetables. These all need fertile soil, which is often not what we start off with.

Even allotment plots more than 50 years old can be infertile if plot holders, over time, have not added any compost or manure, but always took a crop of vegetables every year, wondering then why their potatoes and cabbages are not very big. It is quite surprising to see many allotment plots without a compost heap.

We can do many things to bring our soils up to a highly fertile standard. First, look at what kind of soil you have. Angus and Tayside have a great variety of soils – from the fertile alluvial plains of the Carse of Gowrie and the sandy soils around the coast to the boulder clays inland that were deposited after the last ice age.

Some parts of the central belt on

It is quite surprising to see many allotment plots without a compost heap

higher ground are wet and peaty but, with good drainage, can be quite fertile.

Over the years the boulder clays have had the bigger stones removed to assist cultivation, and these soils can be very fertile as clay particles hold a lot of nutrients which can be released by encouraging soil organisms to break down the clay.

If these soils are acidic, adding lime is very beneficial as it assists nutrient release as well as helping to create a crumbly soil structure which, in turn, drains better.

Get a small garden soil test kit to find out just how acidic your soil is, so you can be guided as to how much lime to add. For allotment holders who grow cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and kale in their rotation, it is normal to lime a quarter of the plot once every four years to that area allocated to brassicas.

Adding manure and compost creates humus, which darkens the soil and helps it to warm up quicker, as well as adding nutrients for crops and food for soil