Soil and assessing what yours is

To determine what sort of soil you have, the first thing to do is a visual survey.  After raining, does the surface puddle or crack during a dry spell?  This could suggest a soli high in clay content, whilst a green film or crusty surface could be down to silty, waterlogged ground.  Soil that is pale could imply a chalky soil.
Weeds can also help determine what soil type you have as rushes and mosses prefer wet soil, whilst sorrel revels in acid soil and stinging nettles usually prefer fertile soil!

The Major soil types

• Peaty
  These feel soft and spongy and are dark due to the high content of organic matter.  They do not contain as much soil fauna, can be difficult to roll into a ball, are acidic and hold a lot of water.
• Clay
  This soil feels heavy and sticky, can be rolled into a ball or sausage shape and water is held well.
• Sandy
  W hen you rub together this type of soil, it is gritty and will not keep it’s shape – will crumble readily.  They tend to be drier soils as they don’t hold water so well and drain freely.
• Silty
  Can not be moulded easily and can feel smooth or silky – they are not gritty or sandy.
• Chalky
  This soil is dry and crumbly and has a greyish white look to it.  If you can squeeze it into a ball, it will break easily into largish particles.  They are alkaline (opposite of acidic) so do not suit ericaceous species such as azaleas and hydrangas.

And of course there is a high chance that your soils do not fit exactly into the categories shown above so you may need to assess which combined soils are the closest to yours.

Improving your soil

There are a few things you can do to give your soil a helping hand.

• Dig in organic matter – if you add decomposed material say from a compost heap, to the topsoil or well rotted manure it will improve the structure and as it breaks down it will increase fertility. This specifically is good for losing up the structure of heavy clay type soils  and also helps to bind the lighter sandy soils together.  

• Covering the surface with material such as composted bark will improve humus levels and shield the surface from extreme weather and prevent erosion.  Aim for a depth of approximately 5cm. 

• Adding grit – adding grit or sharp sand can improve drainage if you have stiff clay soil.  It opens up the soil to aid root growth, increase aeration and relieve stickiness.

• Adding lime or sulphur – In theory soil Ph levels can be altered by adding lime to make the soil more alkaline or add sulphur to make the soil more acid.  In our experience this would be ongoing to ensure any change is maintained and in essence we would suggest that accepting your soil for what it is would be the best and cheapest way forward.

In general

When cultivating your soil timing is very important.  Clay soils should be dug in the autumn before it gets too wet, sandy soils are best dug in the spring which prevents heavy winter weathering.  Flower beds and areas where plants are grown do not of course need to be cultivated anywhere near as much as soils that are used for vegetable production. In fact if you suppress weeds during the growing season and then mulch over winter you will find that the structure of soils do maintain themselves pretty well. The worms that are already in the garden will spend there time breaking down the organic matter, which is also good for encouraging other beneficial soil organisms.

In areas which you do want to leave alone for a number of years ensure you choose bulbs that naturalise well and can thus be left undisturbed.

Bulbs really do not like to sit in water so in areas that this will occur we suggest lifting bulbs over the wet winter months.