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How to Cope With Problem Soils
As well as testing your soil to find out its pH (our Workshop can help you do this) - it is well worth identifying your type of soil by looking at its characteristics, rather than watching expensive plants die. To grow plants successfully, healthy soil is essential. Soil supports your plants and supplies them with water, air and mineral nutrients. If your soil is not ideal crumbly loam, don't despair and think of moving house. Most problem soils can be improved with a bit of time and effort. Problem soils fall into the following broad categories: clay, waterlogged, sandy, stony, chalky, acid. Find out your soil type first.
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Identify your problem by identifying your soil type. Dig a small amount of soil and put it into a container. Dry test it by rubbing a small amount of it around between your fingers and note how it feels. 1. Clay soil will roll into a ball and cylinder without adding water. Develops a shiny streak when smoothed. Feels sticky and heavy. 2. Sandy soil feels gritty and particles will not stick together or make a ball. Sandy loam will be a bit more cohesive, and if silt is present, you'll be able to see the imprints of your fingers when you press the soil. 3. Stony soil contains stones and gravel. Rock pieces will be obvious before you touch, making a high proportion of the soil content. 4. Chalky soil will contain small pieces of white chalk, topsoil may be thin layer over solid rock. 5. Acid - any type of soil can be acid - carry out a pH test of your soil as well. 6. Waterlogged - check your soil drainage by pouring water into the hole you've made for taking a sample. If the water stays for hours, even days, the soil is waterlogged and needs draining. Poke down still further with a spade or rod, if you meet resistance it can indicate hard pan.
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Measure the depth of topsoil. Dig a core sample of your soil. Make the hole about 30cm wide, and 45-60cm deep. See how much topsoil you have and the nature of your subsoil. The depth of each can vary, and the underlying rock can be closer to the surface in different parts of the country, even different parts of your garden.
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Solutions for Clay. Clay soils are not only sticky when wet but also set hard when dry, forming a pan or crust on the surface. This does not mean the soil beneath is bone dry, which explains why some plants can survive in this soil. Water retention is good and clay soils also retain plant foods and fertilisers for much longer than thinner soils. You can only work clay when it is dry and part of the solution is to double dig the soil. This means turning over two spades depth of soil, something that may never have been done before, even in established gardens. This is an autumn job, and can be arduous, so space the work over a period of time! You may not have the time or strength to get involved in such heavy work. Simply spreading organic matter on the soil surface can have a beneficial effect. There are various chemical soil improvers that can be expensive and work for a limited period.
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Solutions for waterlogged soils. If a drainage test takes days or weeks for water to drain away, or if water lays on the ground for weeks in your garden, then your soil is undoubtedly waterlogged. If the level of water in the soil is naturally near the surface, the ground will stay wet for long periods because of a high water table. Many plants won't thrive in waterlogged soils because water fills all the tiny spaces leaving little room for air. Waterlogging can be due to compaction, hard pan (where an almost impermeable layer of very compacted soil has formed some distance below the surface), natural springs, blocked land drains, cracked mains.
If your problem area is confined to a particular spot, you can work with it and grow moisture-loving plants. Check out the plant database for plants that relish bog and waterside conditions and see the Workshop: How to make a bog garden. But if it's widespread, you will probably want to make a decent lawn and grow a wider range of plants, which means installing some drainage.
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Solutions for sandy soils. At least your soil is lighter to work with. Add bulk to it to improve soil texture and help bind its particles into crumbs, which will retain moisture for longer periods. Large quantities of organic material should be added and worked into the soil. Concentrate on areas that you know you want to plant. Add plenty of bulky organic materials to all holes when planting. Home made garden compost is good, but you may need more than you can make. Look for spent mushroom compost, sometimes advertised in local papers, or try Yellow Pages. Well rotted manure helps promote earthworms, horse is freer of weeds than farmyard. Apply a layer of mulch around all new plantings. If sandy soil is combined with hot conditions, see Workshop: How to cope with hot, dry gardens.
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Solutions for stony soils which can occur in small areas of your garden. They're a problem to cultivate and very free draining so plant roots get no chance to take up water. A small number of rocks that occur in clay and flint combinations can be removed over time. Pebbles and large gravel is impossible to remove completely. The good news is that you can reduce the number of stones appearing on the surface by reducing the amount of cultivation that you do. So, dig less. Choose plants that prefer free-draining, stony soils is another answer, but you may want to be able to grow a wider range. Adding organic material to your soil will help to improve the stone to soil particle ratio. Do this by spreading a thick layer as a mulch, in spring and autumn, around all plants. Add plenty to each hole at the time of planting, and around each new plant. Garden compost is the cheapest form of organic material, but if you need more quantity, use mushroom compost if your soil is alkaline anyway, and you don't want to grow ericaceous plants. Moss peat can be used if you do want to maintain acidity.
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Chalky soil can look white and may also be highly alkaline. Shallow soil over solid chalk or limestone is a real problem. You will have a lot of rock near the surface, which makes digging holes for fence posts and plants difficult. Then your soil will soak up water like a sponge and plants will have to force their roots down to find it. With extremely alkaline soils, nutrient deficiency becomes another real problem, as rapid draining causes leaching. And organic material will break down rapidly too, so the benefits of adding it will be shorter lived than with other problem soils. Finally, trees may be poorly anchored, as their root systems develop broadly and shallowly, unable to get through the rock. You need to increase the depth of your soil. Add loads of organic material to all planting holes. If you have to use a mattock or pickaxe to make tree and shrub holes, fill around their edges with lower growing plants. Mulch all planting with a good, deep layer of organic materials. Leaf mould is particularly good for chalky soil. You may want to make raised beds with imported soil. You will have to watch plants carefully in the seasons after planting. Watering in summer will be necessary.
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Solutions for acid soils. Having tested the pH of your soil, the lower it is below 7 means the more acid it is. Very acid soils can pose a real problem - moorlands can be as low as pH 3.5. An acid soil can be sandy, heavyish clay or peaty. The good news about acid soils is that there are many excellent plants that will grow in nothing else. In contrast to gardeners with alkaline soil, you may want to expand your planting options in the opposite way. Sandy soil will need bulky material to enable large-leaved ericaceous plants to flourish. Moss peat is the best as its acidic and breaks down slowly, but coir and garden compost will do too. Your own compost should be acid enough, but do not use mushroom compost if you want to maintain your soil's acidity. Take care which fertilisers you use as many of these are naturally limey and have a harmful effect on ericaceous plantings. The most suitable form of nitrogen (N) is sulphate of ammonia; superphosphate is a good source of phosphorus (P); for potassium (K) use sulphate of potash. To add magnesium to your soil, En-mag is a useful source.
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Double digging is good for heavy soils |
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Compost helps plants in damp or sandy soils |
You can import different soil into a raised bed |
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