Old Style Veggies - Soil Conditioning

GreenFingers_2

Conditioning your soil..... If your soil is heavy, cloggy clay that cannot be dug properly or is lumpy and hard then I would suggest it needs conditioning to a suitable state for growing your Old Style vegetables and flowers. This can be done by the little known method of adding Gypsum to it and secondly adding lots of organic material (e.g. well-matured horse muck, your home made compost, mushroom compost) to the soil. Both steps can be done at the same time.

To go from a rock hard summer clay or squidgy awful winter clay to a wonderfully deep, rich brown, full of natural nutrients, gosh… what wonderful vegetables you have type of soil is going to take time but with the addition of gypsum you will see the changes in your soil within a few months. Apply it any time of the year. Within a full year you will not believe the difference to your soil – a promise. Cross my heart.

Gypsum is a perfectly natural product, ground to a fine powder and mainly used by the building trade for …well… er.. building things. Some garden centres sell it in small and very, very expensive packets using labels such as ‘Soil Conditioner’. You can buy the very same thing from builders merchants or get a builder to give you a few buckets full. The cost of gypsum at builders merchants or DIY places is measured in pennies per kilogram.

The nature of gypsum breaks down the platelet type structure of the clay. Phew… that’s the scientifical bit out of the way ..hee hee. This allows more water and importantly, air, to penetrate deeply and by digging in your organic matter as well you are providing a very good growing medium for your Old Style Vegetables and Flowers.

For a first application, sprinkle the gypsum on at the rate of a couple of handfuls per square foot, more if you wish to, it won’t be a problem – more is better. If you can, fork it in and then add some more then let nature do her work. A couple of months later sprinkle some more on and so on. You will begin see the difference. Added organic matter will help the process, provide structure and crumbliness to your soil and provide the nutrients for your plants.

PS – If you like nice healthy lawns then a treatment of gypsum will be most beneficial. :rolleyes:

Hope this helps…

Debt_Free_Chick

Also, grow potatoes. They're great for breaking up a claggy clay soil. My Sussex Clay veg patch was much more workable having grown pots for a year ... but I'm still adding organic matter too.