Wealden Times | WT226 | March 2021 | Interiors supplement inside

Garden
Feed
Me!
Above: Sweet peas are greedy plants
Jo Arnell gives her soil-enriching recommendations to ensure your garden plants never go hungry
Restore, Replenish, Renew
This is not the beauty page, or an advert for skin
cream, but I do want to talk about nourishing an
important epidermis – the soil. The living breathing layer
of loam – or clay, or sand, beneath our feet. And just as
our skin relies on a combination of surface treatments,
good diet and inner balance in order to stay truly healthy,
so does our soil – a quick spritz with a chemical is not
enough. We also need protection from the ravages of the
elements and moisture loss too. Keep your soil in great
shape and your plants will be healthy, more productive
and less susceptible to attack from pests and diseases.
Microbiome
Soil biology is a complex subject and one that we are only
just beginning to understand – in fact we know more about
the cosmos or the deep oceans than we know about the soil.
We can see the monsters that patrol the soil – the moles,
earthworms, beetles, slugs, centipedes etc, but all around
them, and vital to their wellbeing, are the microscopic
organisms, invisible to the naked eye – the fungi,
nematodes, protozoa, bacteria and viruses. It is a bustling
place, alive and richly diverse. Astoundingly – in fact, almost
unbelievably, there are more microbes in one teaspoon of
healthy soil than there are people in the world – if Horton
hears a Hoo, the Hoos can hear their own micro Hoos too.
There is much talk these days about our gut microbiomes
and the millions of micro-organisms that teem about within
us, living in symbiosis with our own cells and helping (or
otherwise) to regulate our bodily functions. A similar thing
is happening with plants in the area around their roots called
the Rhizosphere, where a complex web of many thousands
of bacterial and micorrhizal interactions take place to help
feed, hydrate and protect (and occasionally compromise) the
health of the plant. The exact combinations and connections
will depend on the plant and the type of soil it grows in.
Know your soil type
Understanding your soil will give you an indication of
which plants will thrive in your garden. If you are growing
edibles it will also help you to decide whether you can grow
directly into your soil and what changes might be needed,
or whether you might be better to construct some raised
beds and choose the soil that goes in them. There are three
main types of soil; loam, clay and sand, but yours could also
be chalky, silty (silky, almost soapy to the touch), or peaty
(spongy/fibrous). You don’t need a soil testing kit necessarily,
although this will give you a good idea of the soil’s pH (how
acidic it is). Simply go outside and take a small trowel full
of soil from just under the soil’s surface. Take a handful and
squeeze it, then open out your hand again. If the soil stays
in a ball, or feels sticky to the touch, it is clay.
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