Should you dig when it’s damp? Toby offers his thoughts
What do you do when the ground is soggy? Toby looks at how to be productive when it seems too wet to plant
GARDENING comes with lots of contradictions: hard-prune an unruly shrub and it’ll grow more vigorously; over-feed a flower and instead of fattening up it dies; and throw a snail over the garden fence and the chances are it’ll be back in no time.
Science has shown that molluscs can slide home from several metres away, although I suspect mine are returned by the neighbours who are probably as generous with their snails as I am!
The biggest contradiction, though, involves the soil. On the one hand, digging it over improves drainage – but if the soil is sodden when turned, the problem just gets worse.
Digging when the soil is wet separates the delicate mix of differentsized particles and turns good topsoil into airless mud, and that’s why winter planting should only ever be tackled on a dry day.
This creates the dilemma of what to do with bare-root plants and tubers like Jerusalem artichokes when the garden is too wet to plant them.
Potting up takes too much time and space, so I place larger roots in trays – using recycled boxes lined with paper – and cover with potting compost. For small onion sets and artichokes, I line them out with their tops poking above the multi-purpose like vegetable icebergs. If the compost is just moist to touch, they slowly root and stay ticking over until conditions allow for planting outdoors.
To boost how quickly soil drains, try a mulch of garden compost – the rotted stuff from the heap. Paradoxically, this also helps dry soil hold on to water. Worms are to thank for this inconsistency as their burrows behave like drainpipes, allowing excess water to escape, while the mucus secreted from their skin binds compost into the soil structure and acts like a gel that holds on to H2O.
One last thing: after digging or planting, always firm the soil gently under the soles of your boots to push the particles together. If you don’t, the spaces will fill with rain and it will sit soggier than a sponge.
“If soil is sodden when turned, it just gets worse”