How to Improve your Garden Soil

Getting the best out of your soil is a fine balance between optimum nutrients, organic matter and drainage ability. 

If your garden soil could do with a little lift, this article will take you through some easy ways to improve your soil quality. 

How to improve garden soil 

Whether you’re growing vegetables or nurturing a colourful flower bed, its success relies on healthy soil. So let’s explore how you can give yours a boost. 

Test your soil

Everyone’s soil is different and what works for one garden might not work for another. 

That’s why testing your soil frequently is strongly advised, as this gives you a clear picture on the current state of your soil and therefore, with a little research, what it might need for a boost. 

Soil testing kits can be purchased online and give readings on a number of nutrients, along with its organic matter content. From this, you can determine what it’s lacking or what could change. 

Make adjustments

From your soil test results, and personal research, you can begin to make adjustments to the soil itself. This could mean introducing sand to heavier soils with a high clay content to improve aeration and introduce nutrients. It might mean adding lime to increase the pH of a particularly acidic soil. 

This is very much a case-by-case basis, so make sure to do your research based on the test readings or seek an expert opinion. 

Introduce compost

The wonderful thing about compost is that it improves virtually any soil type. It introduces valuable nutrients into the soil, as well as improving the soil’s ability to retain these nutrients. Compost also improves soil drainage and enhances aeration around roots, making it all-round good news for your garden’s health. 

Our soil conditioner is a great way to improve many sorts of soils, including sandy loam & heavy clay soils.

Shop Our Compost

The important thing is to get high-quality compost. Here at Chargrace Soils, we provide 10mm PAS100 Compost, designed to improve soil and prevent weed growth. It also adheres to stringent PAS100 specifications, so you can be guaranteed of its quality. 

Crop rotation

If you’re growing vegetables in your garden, it’s advisable to do crop rotation. This means changing the location of certain crops throughout the years. This way, the nutrients in the soil don’t become too depleted, and instead, can be replenished by the different crops introduced to that area. Crop rotation also helps in the fight against pests and pathogens. It’s recommended that you rotate crops every 3 to 4 years. 

Plant cover crops 

Cover crops are planted when a growing season is over to ensure that the soil doesn’t decline in quality until next season. Their purpose is to improve the soil nutrients, protect the soil from erosion and rain, and to lessen the likelihood of weed growth and soil compaction. 

How to improve soil drainage 

Healthy soil equals decent drainage, which is why improving soil drainage is so important to the success of a garden. So here are a few things you can do to help. 

Avoid compaction

Soil that is too compacted can hinder the flow of water, oxygen and nutrients around plant roots. Avoid walking on soil to prevent compaction, especially when it’s wet or very clay-heavy. Instead, build walkways, pathways or stepping stones to bypass this. 

Install deterrents

One way to prevent people or machines from going over the soil is to install deterrents. This could mean putting your flowers on a raised bed or platform, or installing a fence around them. 

Include organic matter

As previously discussed in this article, organic matter from compost is excellent for the improvement of soil quality – and it also can enhance soil drainage. That’s because it works to make the soil structure better, assisting with drainage in the soil. 

Searching for high-quality compost and soil for your garden? Chargrace Soils is a leading supplier of affordable landscaping materials for Kent, including Sevenoaks and Bromley. To find out how you can place an order, just get in touch today.