There goes an old saying “A penny saved is a penny earned”. Turn it into garden-speak and it becomes “Take care of the soil and the plants will take care of themselves”.
Soil is seen as dull old dirt that sticks to your hands and shoes and makes a mess. But if you want healthy, happy plants that shrug off pests and diseases and give you spectacular results, then the soil needs attention.
The ideal soil is rich, dark, and crumbly. It’s a kindly, receptive medium for roots, holds plant nutrients well, and is both free draining and (though it seems to be a contradiction) moisture retentive. If this is what you have in your garden, plants will grow in it like Jack’s beanstalk. If you’re not one of the favored few, your soil will fall into one of the following broad categories:
Clay soil is heavy and dense – when it’s wet you can slice it in neat slabs; when it’s dry the spade hits it with a jaw-shuddering clang and won’t penetrate. The good news is that it’s full of nutrients. Few plants will be able to take advantage of them. However, until you have amended it so that it is not cold and waterlogged in winter and parched in summer.
Improving a really thick clay soil takes time, but it can be done within four or five years if you keep working at it. The key is to incorporate (when digging the soil is possible) plenty of organic matter as a soil conditioner, and at the same time add coarse sand or gypsum (calcium sulfate) to aid drainage. Do this for the first couple of years and whenever you plant. In future year conditioners and amendments can be just lightly forked in – you will have encouraged worms to work at the soil, and they’ll drag them down for you.
Another good way to get clay into a more crumbly state is to rough-dig it in the late fall – slicing out big chunks with a spade and chopping them up. Leave them through the winter, and you’ll find in spring that the frost has caused all these exposed lumps to break up. You can then knock them into smaller pieces, add conditioners and amendments, and mix together.
Clay is exhausting stuff to work with, but once you have broken it down to a manageable state. It’s one of the richest soils of all.
Peaty soil is dark, soft, and moisture retentive, but in its natural state it lacks the nutrients needed to grow a wide range of plants. Acid-lovers (heathers, conifers, rhododendrons, and azaleas) will enjoy this type of soil best, but once it has been improved, almost all plants will thrive in it.
Peaty soil has the invaluable quality of being both quick draining and moisture retentive – the plant remains that it is composed of trap moisture, but the air spaces in its construction prevent it from becoming waterlogged. All you have to do is add fertility. So just keep on digging in as much organic matter as your time, patience, and pocketbook will allow.
Once you’ve done that, and a wide variety of weeds starts to grow, you’ll know that your soil is in good shape, and you’ll experience the joy of pulling out long-rooted dandelions without any resistance at all. If you detect a note of jealousy, you’re a perceptive reader.
Sandy soil is one of the worst to work with. It’s an inert material that acts like a sieve, with water and nutrients washing through at a rapid rate. But persistence pays dividends.
Incorporate huge amounts of organic matter, especially leaf mold and compost, to bind the sand particles and help stop the drastic loss of moisture and plant foods. But you do have to be persistent – large quantities are needed on a regular basis. Try to avoid growing plants that need regular feeding, such as roses and peonies, and don’t even think about growing moisture lovers. Silver-leaved plants should do well, as will rock rose (Cistus), yucca, broom (Cytisus), yarrow, sedum, mock orange (PhiLiclelphus), pinks (Dianthus), sea holly (Eryngium), crocus, and tulips. And it’s ideal for growing carrots.
Limestone soil limits what you can grow. While most plants will do well in the top layer of improved soil, some of the acid-loving with vigorous root systems will start to fail when they get down to the really limy levels. The two problems you’re fighting are excessive alkalinity from the chalk and the quick drainage, which creates dry conditions. There’s little you can do about the former, but you can improve water-retention by digging in plenty of organic matter.
Once you have a good layer of fertile, moisture-retentive soil, most herbaceous plants and small shrubs will root into it without ever coming into contact with the limestone subsoil. Deeper-rooted trees and larger shrubs are more of a problem, so always check neighboring gardens to see what grows well. Among the better trees to try are ornamental crab apple (Malus), juniper, lilac, flowering cherry (Prunus), lilac, and yew. Useful shrubs include mock orange (Philadelphus), weigela, forsythia, aucuba, lilac (Syringa), and buddleia. One of the best climbers for an alkaline soil is honeysuckle (Lonicera).
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