Handling Peat Soil

If you are lucky enough to be growing on peaty soil, grow as intensively as you can, as it is always potentially very fertile and usually easy to work. You’ll find it easy to produce bumper crops and beautiful flowers year after year. Properly managed, a peat soil is superb but, like other soils, it does have its problems.

Most importantly, peat soils are liable to be acidic and will therefore need generous applications of lime to restore the pH balance in the fruit and vegetable plots. In the ornamental garden, provided you choose the correct plants, this should not be necessary.

Furthermore, when they are drained, peat soils tend to dry out quite rapidly in hot weather. If they are allowed to dry out completely, they will shrink and may be difficult to get wet again. To prevent this, some hand watering may be necessary in dry weather.

Digging

The timing of cultivation is not critical. It is not necessary to leave peat rough during the winter.

Drainage

Moorland and fenland peats are often badly drained so you may need to install a drainage system.

Organic Matter

A major advantage of peat is that it is not normally necessary to add any humus-making materials. Peat, unlike the other soils, is largely made up of decomposed matter. It therefore has a low mineral content but contains an excess of organic matter. However, the soil is likely to be low in nutrients to start with so you may need to add fertilizers.

Handling Chalk Soils

There are two big disadvantages with chalk soils. Firstly, they are thin, dry, and "hungry". This is because the particles are very large, like those in sandy soil, so water drains through rapidly, taking plant nutrients with it. Plant nutrients, in the form of organic fertilizers, will therefore need to be added to the soil. Secondly, perhaps even worse, chalk is a very alkaline soil, and so unsuitable for many plants.

Digging

Generally there is no need to worry too much about the timing of cultivations. Like sand, chalk soils are normally dry enough to work, even in the depths of winter. It is not necessary to leave a chalky soil rough during the winter months for the frost and rain to break down. Instead dig it in the spring a few weeks before sowing. Because the topsoil is usually not very deep, digging should be kept shallow and, if the area is fairly small, it could be worthwhile adding a layer of topsoil to the surface.

Drainage

Generally, drainage on chalk soil is too good and the need is to retain water and nutrients. This can be done by adding bulky organic matter that will also help to acidify the soil.

Organic Matter

On chalk, more than any other type of soil, it is important to try and keep the soil surface covered. Grow a crop of green manure during the winter and dig it in during the spring. During the growing season, it is even worth sowing a fastgrowing green-manure crop between vegetables, just to keep the soil covered.

Mulching, or spreading organic material on top of the soil between plants, is also important during the growing season. You should use acid materials, such as peat, grass cuttings, compost, or manure, in order to counteract the alkalinity of the soil.

Handling Sand

A very light soil, sand tends to drain easily and can therefore be cultivated when other soils are lying sodden and unworkable. As it also warms up quickly, it is an ideal soil for raising early crops. However, sand is also hungry and very demanding. So the price of having an easy soil to work is the need to apply extra organic matter and plant food, in the form of fertilizers, because nutrients, as well as water, will drain away.

Digging

When you cultivate sand is relatively unimportant. It is not necessary to leave a sandy soil rough during the winter months for the frost and rain to break down. The large particles make it very easy to cultivate to a fine tillage anyway, so it is best to dig it in the spring a short while before you intend to sow or plant. If you never venture on the soil when it is so wet that it sticks to your boots, you will not go far wrong.

Drainage

During the year, sandy soil will tend to lose water, both through surface evaporation and free-draining, and this could be detrimental to the plants. To reduce the problem, spread organic matter, or mulch, over the beds between plants as often as you can. This lowers the evaporation rate and improves the soil structure.

Organic Matter

It is very important to improve sandy soils by adding substantial amounts of bulky organic material each year. Because of the quick-draining nature of the soil, the organic matter will work down into the subsoil very quickly so, to save work and to put it in the root zone, dig the organic matter into the top few inches or spread it over the surface.

Try to maintain a cover of vegetation over the surface more or less all the time, and certainly in the winter, when the "leaching" of nutrients is at its most rapid. In the vegetable garden, it is a good idea to grow a green-manure crop during the winter when the beds are empty and to dig it in during the spring. This will not only hold many of the nutrients in the soil during the winter, but will also add large quantities of organic matter.