Downshift To the Good Life by Lynn Huggins-Cooper

Author:Lynn Huggins-Cooper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Infinite Ideas Ltd
Published: 2005-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

26

Get down and dirty

If you are trying to buy a smallholding, check out the soil before you purchase the property – both the depth and type. Without good, hearty soil, your vegetables and fruit will never thrive.

Save yourself heartache later on. Grill the vendor about the land, and take good notice of what is growing already (even if it is just weeds). Ask permission to take samples. Don’t be afraid to be cheeky.

Turning over a hand trowel of soil (or, better still, a spadeful) will show how deep the soil is. If the soil depth is very shallow, you may have problems, so it is worth checking. But beyond the depth of the topsoil, how do you check what type of soil you are dealing with? Quite simply, test it. You need to know about your topsoil before you can think about what you can grow.

There are five main types of soil: sandy, clay, loam, chalky and peat. Sandy soil is light and easy to dig. If you pick up a handful, it will feel loose and a little gritty. In windy areas, this type of soil can even blow away! Water runs through sandy soil quickly, and nutrients can be leached out of the soil as the water drains away. All is not lost, however – a sandy soil can be improved by the addition of lots of organic matter such as compost, and well-rotted manure to make it more water retentive and bulky.

A clay soil is heavy, and can be hard to dig. When you try to dig a clay soil, it sticks to your spade, and your feet. A handful of clay soil will stick together if you add water. It will roll into a ball between your thumb and fingers. In dry spells, clay cracks and can become iron hard and inhospitable to plants; in wet spells, puddles may lay on the ground for days, drowning growth. Clay soil has very small particles, and the best way to improve this type of soil is to dig in plenty of organic material such as leaf mould and well-rotted compost, together with manure.

You can also help matters by digging in the autumn, leaving the large clods exposed to the cold weather and frost. This will help to break them down into a fine tilth. We have managed to create a rich, very productive soil here on clay using these methods. Be careful, though, not to tread on clay-based beds if you can avoid it. If the soil is compressed, the aeration is lost.

Loamy soil is dark and crumbly, and full of organic material. When you rub a handful between your fingers, it will feel smooth. Loam is great for growing most plants.

Chalky soil is pale, even to the point of looking grey. Again, water drains away quickly and you will need to dig in plenty of water retaining organic matter in the form of manure, compost and leaf mould.

Peat-based soil is confined to a few areas, but it is very fertile and water retentive, as the soil is made up from decomposed plants.

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