Understanding and improving your soil

According to the National Soil Resources Institute, the soil in South Manchester falls into four broad categories:

1. Loamy and clayey floodplain soils with naturally high groundwater (Blue)
2. Naturally wet very acid sandy and loamy soils (Red)
3. Slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soil (Green)
4. Freely draining floodplain soils (Pink)

All of these soils are loamy which means they have a mix of different sized particles of clay (tiny), silt (bigger) and sand (biggest). A good loam (less than 25% clay) has a good balance of all three particles which encourages good drainage, water retention and fertility.

In my view the main gardening soil issues locally are caused by too much clay. This is best remedied (usually) by regularly adding compost or well-rotted manure to the surface of the soil for established planted areas. For new borders, digging them over and incorporating well-rotted manure or compost is best - ideally done in autumn so frost action can break down large chunks of soil.

Plants look their best when they are in soil that is the same/ similar as their natural habitat. To make each plant perform at its best, you can can add all sorts of additives to the planting hole's or pot's soil mix to try and match a plant's ideal soil. Additives that I mainly use are:

• Horticultural grade sand or grit to improve drainage
• General purpose compost to increase fertility, water retention and drainage
• Slow release general purpose fertilizer to increase fertility
• Water retaining crystals to increase water retention
• Mushroom compost or lime to lower the pH for alkaline soil-loving plants
• Ericaceous compost to increase the pH for acid soil-loving plants

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