The secrets of soil

What is soil?

When starting your garden, soil is the foundation that your plants build off. Therefore, it is important that you’re using the right soil for the plants you’re trying to grow. Soil is made up of five key components: mineral particles from the soil bedrock, organic particles from organic matter (humus, decomposed plants and soil animals), Water, Air and living organisms (including bacteria, fungi and small creatures).

What do you need to consider?

All good soil has several key characteristics, it has to drain freely and have good water holding capacity. Have high levels of organic matter. Have a loam mix of about 40% sand, 40% silt and 20% clay. It also must be slightly acidic to best absorb nutrients.

Water holding capacity with good drainage allows the soil to get ‘wet’, hydrates plants, provides a liquid solution for transporting minerals, and has spaces between the soil particles which means the plants don’t ‘drown’.

Organic matter provides slow release nutrients for our gardens. Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Sulphur as well as microelements critical for plant health.

Soil acidity is important because it affects whether minerals are released for plants to take up. A soil pH of between 6 and 6.8 is where plants can most easily access these minerals. It is worth remembering that as organic matter decomposes the soil pH can be much higher.

The size of the mineral particles can vary enormously. Clay (tiny) has good water and nutrient holding capacity but doesn’t have air spaces for water and air movement. Sandy soils are the other extreme having large particle sizes and air spaces but have much less surface area to hold water or nutrients. The ideal is a combination of clay/silt/sand which balances the strengths and weaknesses of each and is called loam.

How can I improve my soil?

Enrich the soil with compost and organic matter. Improving the soil now will give your garden flowering and growing power for Spring and Summer.

If you have new beds, you can dig it in the depth of your spade.

If you are reviving existing garden beds, scratch Jeffries Organic Compost into the top 10cm or so of soil, being careful not to damage any roots.

Don’t forget your raised garden beds, and wicking beds, which will also thank you for adding Organic Compost in. If you need to add more soil to these areas, then Jeffries Veggie & Garden Soil is ideal as it contains Organic compost as well as resists compaction which is common in beds like this.

A big thanks to our friends at Jeffries for the info in this article.