Soil production
Gardeners sometimes need to get their hands dirty, writes David Overend.
Most children do not perceive anything wrong with the idea of getting their hands dirty mucking about with soil. Kids love dirt, making mud pies, encountering bugs, beetles, worms – as long as hands are washed post-playing, then everything is fine.
Fast forward to adulthood and things are different; as we get older, there’s a subtle change – soil may be tactile, but it isn’t something to be handled without wearing gloves and having had a series of tetanus jabs.
Most gardeners have no problem with soil as long it is plant-friendly, well-worked, friable and neither too wet nor too dry. Soil enables the human race to exist; without it we would be the stuff of dinosaurs.
Soil means plants, means food – food for humans and food for the animals on which so many humans rely for their daily ‘bread’.
So, it makes sense to take care of the soil, to nurture it, to ensure that it is healthy and productive and able to meet the demands placed upon it.
The majority of garden plants like a friable, well-drained soil enriched with plenty of organic material; a minority prefer a limey soil or a sandy soil or a boggy soil, so it’s important to find out an individual’s needs before you prepare its home.
If it’s right, don’t fix it, but if it’s too heavy, packed with clay, for example, there will be work to be done.
Add organic matter. This helps improve drainage and lighten heavy soil. Equally, digging in plenty of organic matter will improve a sandy, dry soil. Over years, this should produce a soil that will please most plants.
An acidic soil is fine for the likes of rhododendrons and pieris and camellias, but many plants prefer a neutral soil, neither too acidic or too alkaline, so adding lime and, again, well-rotted organic matter, is the best way to provide a happy home for the majority.
If the drainage is poor, pile in the wellrotted organic material, the old compost from outdoor containers, perhaps add grit to help aerate the soil and if all else fails, dig a drainage system.
Or grow plants that thrive with their roots in wet ground – the likes of Astilbe, skunk cabbage (Lysichiton), candelabra primulas, iris and hostas all prefer damp ground.