How to improve your soil this time of year?

Wondering how to improve your soil at this time of year? No matter what type of soil you garden with, there are always ways to improve it. Mostly it's considered best to take action in Spring and Autumn to prepare the soil for the seasons to come. If you look after your soil and understand what type you have, this makes it much easier to have success with whatever you are growing. Treat your soil well and it will repay you so identify your soil type, clay, silt or sand and then work out what will grow best in those soils. However, improvements can be mad, so have a read of these ways to help:

• Leaf Mulch
• Well rotted organic matter
• Go no dig

 

Leaf Mulch

Leaves are natures way of improving the soil they fall on. A great way to create your own leaf mulch is by raking up all of your fallen leaves and store them until they have broken down. You can pile them up into a compost bin but they will need some air, or hessian sacks are ideal. If you don't have access to any of those, rake the leaves into bin sacks, punch a few holes in and store them somewhere safe. Next year you’ll be ready to use that perfect mulch on your garden borders. 

 

Well rotted organic matter

After all these months of growing fruit, vegetables and plants the soil needs a boost and there is no better time than now. You want to know how to improve your soil at this time of year, then read on. If you are working on your allotment, remove old plants and incorporate some well-rotted organic matter to feed the soil for the seasons to come. Some people dig it in and some just lay it on top and let the elements and nature take control. Either way get some manure, garden compost or other matter on that soil.

 

Go no dig

If you haven’t heard of the no dig method of gardening, it is exactly as it says! This method allows nature to do what it does best and means you don't have to dig in manure or even dig out weeds in order to grow. This time of the year is a great time to improve your soil so when a better time to see if you can start implementing the no dig method? So, to improve your soil just cover it over with cardboard, cover that with a good 15cm of well-rotted organic compost and let nature improve the soil for you.

 

From tools to compost, we have plenty in store to keep you busy to help you improve your soil, so come along and visit us.