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As we face increasingly dry springs and summers, ecologist and author Becky Searle explores the simple changes we can make in our gardens to help soil retain more moisture and plants thrive with less watering. Discover why organic matter, mulching and growing more densely can make a real difference to your garden:

In late May I sat, my weather app open on my phone, glancing between it and the window, praying for rain. My water butts were empty, my IBC (Intermediate Bulk Container) tank on my allotment also empty, the plants I had so lovingly raised from seeds drying out before my eyes. But rain had been promised, and it couldn’t come soon enough. It felt like I was awaiting the arrival of some exciting delivery.

Living where I do in Exeter, we are in something of a rain shadow. Where other parts of Exeter experience a lot of rain, it often passes us by, so I’m used to these anxious waits. While plants are establishing themselves in spring it is particularly important to water deeply, ensuring that the roots can penetrate into the soil, anchoring them and prospecting for more water. While the root balls are small from being raised in pots, or being transferred out of a seedbed, they are still incredibly vulnerable. This means that dry spells during late spring can often leave us in something of a pickle if we don’t have running water.

Certain soils will dry out much faster than others. Where I live we have heavy clay, which holds onto water well, but when it dries out it turns solid, restricting root growth and causing water to run off the surface. Sandy soils dry out quickly, but because they are light and uncompacted, plants find it easier to put out deep roots.
There are certain plants, like carrots, that develop long taproots. These are well suited to soils with better drainage. Other plants however, like lettuce, will put out lateral roots, to take advantage of the lighter, upper layers of the soil. This means that not all plants are able to grow deep roots, so we do have to sometimes adjust our watering strategies to suit different plants, and different soil conditions. The old adage of watering deeply rather than often is still true, but it’s only a small part of the story.

There is one universal thing that we can do to help our plants, however, whether they have deep roots or shallow roots, and that is to increase the amount of organic matter in your soil. Don’t worry, this isn’t complicated, but it is important that you understand how and why it works so that you can trust the process and not panic that you’re getting it wrong.

Dead organic matter in the soil is what holds onto water. Building the amount of this in your soil will help it hold more moisture and therefore reduce how much you need to water your plants. This is usually in the form of dead plant matter, in other words, compost.

You can do a simple experiment to see this in action. Pick up a pot in your garden before watering it, then pick up the same pot after watering it. A dry pot of compost is very light; a wet pot is heavy. This is because the compost is holding water. Most of you will have already experienced this in action in your garden or houseplants. A pot of pure sand, silt, gravel or even clay (sediments) will not perform in the same way, it may weigh slightly more after watering, but most of what you put in the top will run off the surface or through the drainage holes in the bottom.

The obvious solution to many of us, and the prevailing gardening wisdom for many years knowing this, is to mix organic matter in with the soil. After all, if you mixed compost into your pot of sand or gravel, its water-holding potential would increase significantly.

However, with the soil in our gardens we need to be more careful. It’s a process that can take years.
The first thing to know is that when we dig, we release organic matter from the soil. This happens with the sudden introduction of a lot of oxygen, which causes a huge spike in microbial activity. The microbes in the soil process the organic matter really quickly, releasing a lot of it as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Alongside this, many of the organisms in the soil, which themselves are needed to mix and break down organic matter, are exposed to conditions that they simply can’t survive, and they die. Incidentally, this causes a spike in nutrients being released into the soil which is partly why we learned to dig our soils in the first place. However, with a healthy population of organisms within the soil plant nutrients are released steadily throughout the year.

If we want to build organic matter content in our soils the first thing we must do is stop digging. If your soils are compacted, you may want to insert a fork into the ground then pull it back by a few inches. This will introduce a little oxygen into the system and help decompact without causing major disruption to your ecosystem. Do this little by little if you have to, and not at all if you don’t.

The next thing we need to do to build organic matter content in our soils and help us water less, is to mulch. Adding a layer of mulch on the surface of the soil helps water to be absorbed into the soil rather than running off, and traps a layer of moisture, reducing surface evaporation. I mulch with Lakeland Gold because I’m on clay soil. It’s important to add a mulch every so often, every year or even every six months if you can, but less if you can’t, to replenish the organic matter that is naturally removed during tidying and harvesting in our gardens.

A compost mulch will soon start to disappear down into the layers of your soil. This gradual and subtle magic is performed by the creatures in the soil, slowly pulling it underground, breaking it down as they do and turning it into forms that our plants can extract nutrients from.

The modern style of gardening often advises digging your compost in, and well-meaning gardeners will follow this advice, feeling as though they are doting on their plants. Compost around the plant roots still needs to be broken down by creatures like earthworms before plants can extract the nutrients from it. These organisms will naturally come to the surface to feed.

What this means is that laying the compost on the surface is actually a more efficient way of getting the nutrients to your plant roots, as instead of having to hunt around for it, worms can easily find it when they visit the surface to feed. By allowing this to happen, we incorporate more organic matter into the soil, with less effort on our part, and create a nice layer on the surface to lock in moisture. We also don’t risk reducing organic matter content by digging. In fact, even if you don’t have any compost to lay on the surface, it’s still better not to dig your soils.

The next thing we must do is to grow plants. Plants and the soil have a symbiotic relationship. In order for both to survive and thrive naturally, they need each other. Having live plant roots in the ground helps to build organic matter content. This works because plants pump sugars and carbohydrates into the soil, which are then turned into organic glues, helping to stick together the structure of the soil. The sugars and carbohydrates help to act as billions of tiny sponges in the soil, hanging onto water as it flows from the surface down.

What plants also do is cast shade on the ground. This is very important when it comes to reducing watering. Plants will harvest the sunlight and turn it into plant matter. While they do lose some water through their leaves, they lose less than what would be lost from the surface of bare soil. There is an excellent paper by Zhang et al. 2017 where they studied this and found that a denser canopy over the soil resulted in less water loss.

Utilising spaces between plants such as planting lettuce or carrots between garlic or onions can not only be beneficial to the plants as companions and help you grow more in the same areas but also results in less watering. You can use crops like radish and rocket that grow fast to fill spaces when needed too.

The last thing you may want to consider for particularly thirsty plants is a drip system. These are surprisingly efficient, delivering water directly to the base of the plant. I use a small solar powered one in my polytunnel that takes water from my water butt and delivers it directly to my plants, using a lot less water than I would with a watering can, and doesn’t require me to do anything!

Watering less means creating conditions where water can be used more efficiently. It means cultivating soil that holds onto water, rather than letting it drain away or evaporate. It means using natural process to help lock moisture into the soil.

Don’t forget that you can implement any of these strategies at any point in the year. Mulching in summer will help significantly, especially around particularly thirsty plants, and with several years of mulching and practicing no dig, you will find your soil starts to noticeably improve.

Becky Searle is a garden writer and author of Grow a New Garden; Plan, Design and Transform any Outdoor Space. She trained as an ecologist and specialises in soil health and ecosystem gardening. You can follow Becky online at @Sow_Much_More.

Caption: Basil flowers

Caption: Basil seedlings ready to be pricked out

Caption: Lemon Verbena

In her latest seasonal blog on herbs, Stephanie Hafferty celebrates the flavours and fragrances of summer, from sowing basil seeds to making the most of fresh harvests from the kitchen:

The joy of basil and other herbs - sowing to eating!

Summer is my favourite season in the herb growing calendar, because it is the time when basil thrives. Here in the UK, our cool damp climate is not ideal for growing this fragrant, flavoursome, warmth and sun-loving herb during the rest of the year.

This year I am growing 16 or so varieties of basil, including lime, lemon, lettuce leaf, Thai, red and liquorice, as well as the more familiar classic Italian basil. The choice of seed available now is wonderful.

How to grow basil

I like to sow basil into a seed tray, and then prick out as many seedlings as I need. Basil needs warmth to germinate, so this way I am able to grow up to 20 different kinds of seedling in one tray, saving space on the heat mat.

Fill a seed tray with Dalefoot Wool Compost for Seeds and lightly water. Make 9-10 shallow grooves in rows across the width of the tray with your fingers. This is where you’ll sow the seeds.

Use old seed labels to make a ‘barrier’ down the middle of the length of the seed tray. This doubles the number of seed varieties you can sow.

Sprinkle the seeds in each groove, labelling with the variety as you go. Sprinkle some more compost on the top, just a light layer, and place on a heat mat or somewhere warm and sunny.

When the seedlings have germinated, prick out all that you want into module trays filled with seed compost. Then, place the tray with leftover seedlings back in a warm sunny place, and leave them to grow into microleaves: two crops from one tray. Cut when large enough and enjoy - a taste of what is to come.

Be careful not to over-water. Basil won’t enjoy being waterlogged, so keep the compost moist but don’t over water.

When the plants are big enough, 6-10cm tall, and after danger of frost has passed, plant out using a dibber in the ground, or pot on into larger pots. In much of the UK basil grows better undercover, in a greenhouse, cloche or polytunnel.

I enjoy the mindfulness of pricking out seedlings, but it is not for everyone. An alternative is to fill a module tray with seed compost and sow 2-3 basil seeds per module. Thin to 1 seedling when large enough to handle.

Try growing lemongrass

To accompany Thai basil, grow lemongrass, a popular ingredient in Thai cuisine. It needs a similar start in life to basil.

Fill a module tray or several small pots with Dalefoot Wool Compost for Seeds, lightly water and then sprinkle a pinch of lemongrass seeds on each module. Cover with a light sprinkling of compost and place somewhere warm, light and frost free to germinate.

Plant out when 8-10 cm tall in the ground (undercover is best in most of the UK) or in pots in a sunny location.

Lemongrass is easy to over winter if grown in pots. Bring the pots inside in the autumn and place on a sunny windowsill.

Lemon Verbena: the queen of lemon-scented herbs

If I had to choose just one herb to grow, it would be lemon verbena (Aloysia citrodora). This perennial herb has intensively scented and flavoured leaves. Crush a leaf and inhale the fragrance for a hit of bright lemon sherbet.

I mainly grow it to make herbal tea, delicious dry and fresh. It is a very versatile herb. Use it to make cordial, syrup, a liqueur (infused in gin or vodka), sugar, salt, infused in vinegar, and more.

Buy plants from a good herb supplier which grows in peat free compost. You can also propagate it from cuttings.

Lemon verbena is a really easy herb to grow. It is happy in most soils as long as they are well drained, but does need a sunny spot. It is mostly pest and disease free, and ideal for growing in urban courtyards or balconies, as well as in gardens.

I grow all of my lemon verbena (I have five plants!) in pots, so that they can come outside in late spring and then return undercover (inside the polytunnel) in the late autumn. Very cold, wet winters can kill the plant, so I take this precaution.

It is very happy in Dalefoot Wool Compost for Potting (the red bag). Lemon verbena doesn’t like being waterlogged, so make sure it’s not sitting in a tray of water, and that the pot can drain as needed.

Lemon verbena is one of the easiest herbs to dry. Simply cut bunches, then hang in an airy spot. Store the dried leaves in clean, dry jars in a cool, dark place.

Steph’s recipes for basil

Each variety of basil offers something special in the kitchen, especially if you enjoy trying out different international cuisines. Large lettuce leaf basil has a wonderful typical basil flavour and can be used just as you would Italian basil in pesto, sauces, salads etc. Where it really shines is as a one-bite cup or wrap.

Lettuce leaf basil one-bite cups

A wonderful way of making leftover bits and bobs in the fridge into something delightful.

Finely chop raw summer vegetables and whatever else you fancy: cooked chicken, tofu, mushroom, etc.
Place a teaspoonful in each basil leaf.
Add a little sauce. I like soy sauce, chilli and lime for a spicy kick. Mayo, peanut sauce, hummus or your favourite salad dressing are good too.

To serve, leave the little wraps open, like leafy cups.

To eat, pick up the filled leaf, fold the sides in and pop into your mouth. Oh yum!

Make the most of basil flowers

To keep basil cropping and producing masses of fragrant leaves, it is important to pinch out the basil flowers. Otherwise, the basil will “think” that it is time to produce seeds, focusing on that stage of its life cycle.

Basil flowers are delicious. They taste like a lighter version of the leaves. Add to salads for a tasty, pretty garnish, or use to make salad dressings by infusing in oil.

Basil Flower Oil

Place the basil flowers to half fill a clean jar. Pour over a light oil, such as olive oil, ensuring the leaves are completely submerged.

Leave in a cool place out of direct sun for a week to infuse. Strain through a sieve lined with muslin, discard the basil flowers into the compost heap, and pour the oil into a bottle.

Use within a month.

About Stephanie:

Stephanie Hafferty is an award-winning garden and food writer, expert no dig gardener, homesteader, edible garden designer and inspirational public speaker. She grows at her homestead on half an acre in West Wales, from where she runs gardening and homesteading courses.

Stephanie writes for national and international publications, and is the author of three books. Her latest book The Productive Garden: An essential guide towards self-sufficiency was published in March 2026 by Frances Lincoln.

Follow her journey on her blog, Instagram and You Tube

Website and blog : www.nodighome.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniehafferty/

You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/StephanieHaffertyNoDigHomesteading

Caption: Ade Sellars

Caption: Treat melons like cucumbers...

Caption: Strawberry Pineberry

Spring is the time to get sowing, growing and trying something new. Garden writer Ade Sellars shares his mix of trusted favourites and more unusual crops, with practical tips to help you make the most of the season:

Spring has sprung! So, it’s time to sow, grow and pot on. With daylight hours increasing week on week, it means we can be in our green spaces for longer. So, there’s no excuse to get out there and embrace all Mother Nature has to offer this month.

As a veg grower, I always have my yearly staples, the ‘go-to’ seeds that bring me such pleasure. I regard them as old friends, a growing relationship forged over many seasons. When they fall I prop them up, if they’re hungry I feed them, and when they need a Taylor Swift rendition I will happily appease my greenhouse ‘Swifty’ fanbase. In return they bring me joy, food and there’s never a bad critic when it comes to my singing. It’s the perfect relationship!

In my shed, I have an old apothecary cabinet. Every drawer alphabetically ordered, each holding the crème de la crème of my seeds. Centuries from now, a futuristic Indiana Jones figure will uncover these long-lost treasures from an overgrown veg bed, raising questions on ‘who was this mystic gardener?’. Joking aside, these precious seeds have been many years of tried and tested varieties, honing them down to what works for me, the kitchen garden and our palette. On this voyage of discovery, there have been wonderful successes and desperate failures. But, that is all part of the gardening journey, you are always learning, unaware at times it’s making you a better gardener.

However, I am a gardener of two halves, the other side of me is something quite different. He embraces the weirdness and the strange, yearning for individuality. He bathes in chaos and celebrates the unusual. I see him as a cross between Ziggy Stardust and Danny La Rue. A glittery trowel in one hand and feathery boa in the other. For this grower represents all the gardening kooks and flash gardening trends out there. And he is not afraid to be counted. So, when April comes around, and seed favourites are sown. I always make sure there are at least of couple surprises in there to highlight my kookiness.

Growing something different doesn’t mean you have to trail to the mountains of Tibet for the seed of the high-altitude Black Diamond Apple. Or, delve into the jungle depths of Costa Rica in search of the priceless Ruby Glow Pineapple. Start small, keep it modest, but do give it a go. And if you’re not sure what to try first, may I offer you a suggestion. So, to give you a head start, here’s a smorgasbord of oddities I’ve grown in my kitchen garden:

Strawberry Pineberry

A white fruit with red seeds, it looks like someone has reversed the look of the standard strawberry. Tasty, sweet and succulent, they hold a pineapple-like flavour. Although they are a hybrid of the Japanese white strawberry and Florida red strawberries, white strawberries aren’t something new and have been grown by the Indigenous people in Chile.

Easy to grow and winter hardy, they will thrive in beds, pots and containers and should be ready to harvest in June and July. Plant them up in a sunny protected area with Dalefoot’s Wool Compost for Vegetables and Salad and watch them thrive. Whilst the pollinators will enjoy their white flowers in spring, the later white fruit will hold no interest to birdlife, as they will think they are unripe fruit. Which means, you get to enjoy more of the fruit.

Melon

Not the most unusual fruit in grow in the UK, but as someone who grows them year on year, both indoors and outside, I still have people who don’t believe you can successfully grow them here.

I treat them as I treat the way I grow cucumbers. In April I sow two seeds into a 9cm pot filled with Dalefoot’s Wool Compost for Seeds. Once there are two seedlings, I remove the weaker one and allow the other to grow on in the greenhouse. When the last frost has passed, and plants have been hardened off, some will be planted on and grow in the greenhouse. But for the rest of the plants, they go outside into raised beds and large pots, often planting two close together. I also give them a structure so they can pull themselves up by their tendrils. Some gardeners will remove smaller fruits and pinch out shoots, but for me, all is welcome.

Loofah

Sticking with the cucumber feel, and also from the cucumber family is the loofah. Although it is edible, being high in fibre, rich in Vitamin A and packed with antioxidants, most people tend to grow it for its cleaning capabilities. Allowed to mature, this green fruit transforms into a coarse sponge which is ideal for shower time.

Like the cucumber, the loofah is a vine plant, so requires plenty of space to grow and latch onto. Originally found in tropical climates, it’s most happy grown in a greenhouse or polytunnel.

Before sowing, to help germination, try soaking the seeds in warm water for a few hours. Sow into a 9cm pot and once you have young plants, plant on. Their final growing position should have plenty of space to allow the plant to successfully grow. Also, with so much foliage, be aware of the possible onset of mildew and aphids. Therefore, greenhouses and polytunnels should have plenty of ventilation.

Samphire

Often regarded as a coastal plant, and firm favourite on menus in recent years, I can happily grow this edible plant it in my kitchen garden. However, I tend to grow it in pots, where it’s easier to dictate the growing conditions. Filling a large pot with a mixture of Dalefoot compost and plenty of sand for good drainage, I thinly sow across the surface. Lightly covering the seeds with vermiculite or compost, then place the pot into shallow water and allow it to soak from the bottom as to allow seeds to remain undisturbed. Once germination occurs, watering from this point should be with mild salty water, no more than a teaspoon at a time. If there is thick seed growth, thin out. Once plants are established, and the last frost has passed, place pots outside where they can sit in a sunny or light-shaded spot. I find the more you cut it, the more it comes back thickening the plant.

Peanuts

If you’re feeling a bit nutty, and really want to try something new, what about growing peanuts? Despite being nuts, they actually grow their nuts underground in pods and not on trees, unlike other nuts. This makes them legumes, and are related to peas and beans. Cultivated in South America since 3000BC, they are now a global favourite. If growing them from seed seems a bit much, why not buy them in plant form from online suppliers. Both plants and seed are now more readily available in the UK, so it’s well-worth giving them a go.

Again, large pots or raised beds in a sunny spot containing light, sandy soil are ideal for these plants. Plant them out in late May, they will grow to produce a striking yellow flower. Come late September onwards they should be ready to harvest.

This spring, embrace the ‘freaks and geeks’ of horticulture and give it a go. Afterall, as the legendary David Bowie once said, “I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring”.

Ade.

BIOG

I’m Ade Sellars the ‘Good Life Gardener’, and I’m am award-winning garden writer, gardener designer, and filmmaker, with a passion for growing my own food in my kitchen garden. I’m also the garden expert presenter on both Must Have Ideas TV and BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. As well as delivering gardening talks around the country, I shall be the stage host for Gardeners’ World Spring Fair on the ‘In Conversation’ Stage from the 1st-3rd May.

Website: www.adesellars.com
Instagram: adesellars
YouTube: @TheGoodLifeGardener
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ade-sellars-the-good-life-gardener-7429ba42/

Choosing the right plants for your garden starts from the ground up, and understanding your soil is the key to making gardening easier and more successful.

In this guide, author and ecologist Becky Searle explains how working with your soil type can transform the way your garden grows:

Planting for your soil type

One of the most important aspects of gardening, but one that is frequently overlooked, especially by beginner gardeners, is choosing the right plants for the right places. For example, we know that putting sun-loving plants into deep shade will not produce good results. But how often do you think about planting for your soil type? Plenty of plants will thrive in one type of soil but struggle in another. This can be put down to the individual adaptations plants have for life in different soils. Don’t forget that around half of a plant’s biomass is underground, in the soil.

Most plants we buy from garden centres will tell you they enjoy “moist, well-drained soil”. This is the holy grail of soils and is usually achieved by adding plenty of organic matter and letting soil structure build on its own over a period of several years. Some soils are naturally more moist or more well-drained than others, but the addition of organic matter helps to balance this out. For more on how this works, check out my blog on the power of mulching.

The thing with appropriate planting is that once you understand your soil type, growing becomes easy. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there’s no such thing as green fingers, just those who want to learn and those that don’t.

Understanding your soil type

First things first, to make good choices about the plants you grow, you must first of all understand what kind of soil you have. This is the fun part as it involves going outside and getting your hands dirty.

Start by digging a small hole, a few inches deep and scooping out some soil from the bottom. Hold it in your hands and see how it feels. If your soil feels coarse and grainy and falls apart easily, it’s likely sandy. If it is sticky and smooth between your fingers it’s probably clay. If the particles are fine, but don’t hold together very well, it’s likely silt. Next, have a look at the colour. Is it a dark chocolate brown? If so, this indicates plenty of organic matter. If the soil is pale, pallid or particularly rust coloured, it’s likely lacking in organic matter. Now see if you can squeeze it into a ball. If it won't take shape at all it's likely to be sandy and lacking in organic matter. If you can squeeze it into a shape and it stays in that shape easily and does not crumble when squeezed between thumb and forefinger, it’s probably clay.

The next thing you need to do is test your soil pH. This is slightly fraught as soil pH can vary greatly from inch to inch within your garden. So, it's worth taking a few samples from different locations, to be sure. Most soils will be neutral, at between 6 and 7 on the pH scale. However, if you have soil that is below 6 or above 7, it's worth knowing so that you can plant appropriately. pH can determine the nutrient availability within the soil, and also which plants will thrive.

Choosing the right plants for your soil

Let’s look at some of the different types of soil, and how plants have adapted for life in those soils. This may help you to determine which kinds of plants will do well in the soils that you have.

Sandy soils

Plants that are adapted for sandy soils typically have strong, fibrous root systems and waxy or narrow leaves, like we see in lavender. These adaptations help them to stabilise the soil, and minimise water loss through their leaves, as water is often a limited resource on well-drained, sandy soils. Other plants that are adapted for sandy soils may have a deep central taproot, like carrots. These go prospecting for water and nutrients in the lower levels of the soil, while also anchoring the plant to the ground. They often set up strong relationships with mycorrhizal fungi that assist in finding water and nutrients, acting as a secondary root system.

Clay soils

In heavy clay soils oxygen levels can be low especially in winter when the ground is wet. Plants that cope well in these conditions often have robust root systems capable of tolerating temporary waterlogging. Some develop shallow, wide-spreading roots that sit closer to the surface where oxygen is more available. Others can simply shut down root activity until oxygen is more available. Plants such as Iris have this ability and often thrive in boggy or frequently waterlogged conditions.
Nutrients are abundant in most clay soils, as is water, so the problem presented to plants is spreading their roots out in the dense soil structure. By sticking to the upper layers of the soil where it is less compacted, they can achieve this easily. Plants that do well in clay soils include brassicas, hydrangeas and Japanese anemones, amongst others.

Silt soils

Silt soils are rich in nutrients but often prone to waterlogging and surface crusting. Plants that are adapted for silt soils can often tolerate having “wet feet”. Plants like alder, birch and willow can tolerate some waterlogging in the soil through specific root adaptations that allow them to get oxygen even when the roots are wet, temporarily switch off their root respiration, or grow specialised root structures that help them cope with waterlogging for longer periods. Many plants cannot cope with even a few hours of waterlogging, so it’s important that if your silt soils are prone to waterlogging, you get the right plants for the conditions. Silt soils that are not prone to waterlogging are often light and so, plants produce dense root systems that can anchor them securely and help to stabilise the soil.
Another factor with silt soils is that rapid plant growth can easily occur because of the abundance of nutrients. The problem with growth on these soils tends to be more to do with light and space. Many herbaceous perennials thrive in these kinds of soil.
Silt soils often work well for fast-growing plants as they are rich in nutrients that can support fast growth. Annual vegetables and flowers often thrive in silt soils, and during the summer waterlogging is usually not such a problem.

Calcareous soils

Another type of soil that often presents a challenge is calcareous soils. These are alkaline soils and include chalky or limestone soils. These soils are often thin and dry out quickly. They also lack nutrients and have a high pH. So, plants that are adapted for life on calcareous soils are very efficient with their nutrient uptake or have developed strategies to obtain more nutrients from the soil. Wildflowers are often well adapted to calcareous soils, as are many Mediterranean plants such as olives, pomegranate and fig. Plants on chalky soils often form beneficial relationships with fungi to help them find nutrients. Buddleia is another good example of a plant adapted for life on chalky soils.
Loam soil is one of the few soils where most plants will thrive. This is due to its high organic matter content.

Summary

So, if we want to improve our soils and make them more accommodating, it stands to reason that we should be adding organic matter. Dalefoot Compost will do this for you.

However, we also need to ensure that there are live plants in the ground as much as possible to support soil health and minimise soil disturbance. Regular, large-scale disturbance to the soil, such as turning, rotovating or digging over, releases organic matter from the soils and causes a breakdown of the natural soil structure.

Appropriate planting helps us to maintain the health of our plants and our soils as one, making gardening easier and more enjoyable. We can get around this to some extent by building raised beds, growing in containers and improving the soil, so you needn’t feel trapped into one specific type of plant. But if you want healthy plants that thrive easily and naturally, planting for your soil type is essential.

Click on this link for more info on which Dalefoot Composts products to use - https://www.dalefootcomposts.co.uk/our-products.aspx

Becky

Becky Searle is a garden writer and author of Grow a New Garden; Plan, Design and Transform any Outdoor Space. She trained as an ecologist and specialises in soil health and ecosystem gardening. You can follow Becky online at @Sow_Much_More.