The composition of soil

Cherishing your plants means knowing your soil
Few plants can survive without soil apart from some Tropical ones. It is therefore one of the fundamental things that you must understand, would you think of feeding a cat on a diet of straw? For plants it is the same!

Any soil has a number of characteristics. For the gardener the most important thing is to know its texture and level of acidity. A light acid soil needs to be treated very differently from a heavy alkaline one. Three components make up the texture of soil: clay, silt and sand.

Clay, heavy but bountiful
Clay makes soil mouldable and sticky. Clay soils are sometimes like the clay used in pot making. In winter we moan because the clay is like sticky glue and in summer it is hard and cracked. It is however a very fertile soil but it does need to be broken up. You should never add sand or gravel to a clay soil as you risk turning it into concrete! The addition of peat is possible but not easy as it does not mix well with a sticky soil. It is preferable to add organic matter to a clay soil such as rotted down compost that is dug in. It is hard work at the beginning but it will reward you with a luxurious garden in the end. The box family and several other quick growing shrubs like this type of soil.

Sand, light and mean
Sand by contrast has a very loose texture. It is impossible to mould it into a ball in one’s hand. In summer sandy soil has a tendency to become like dust. In winter it will never become waterlogged even after heavy rain. In contrast to clay, sand is a poor soil and its nutrients are easily washed away by the rain. Sandy soils are often acidic, which pleases peat loving plants such as rhododendrons, azaleas, etc. You must regularly feed plants in this type of soil, using fertilizers, compost, manure etc. There is no point in feeding large quantities at a time (or heavy watering) as everything will filter down through the soil out of the reach of the plants.

Silty soil, the best mix
Silty soil is in between clay and sand: a silty soil is neither too porous nor too sticky. If you have such soil you can grow numerous plants without having to change its consistency. This type of soil however is not often found, except next to water courses, in valley bottoms and in some coastal regions etc.

In most cases garden soil will be made up of these three elements (sand, silt and clay) in varying proportions. It is only by handling the soil and seeing how it drains that you will discover the type of soil you have. It is also worth you thinking about what elements could be added to your soil to improve its texture and enrich it.