Need help improving soil

kb1977

Hi there

I love gardening but am absolutely rubbish at it. :eek: Bought a house 3 years ago and the garden had rows of stones around the lawn, I dug them all up so they were just empty pits and filled them all with multi purpose compost from the garden centre. Three years later and after hundreds of pounds spent on plants, there's the odd one of two that have come back every year such as asian lillies and saxifraga, but at the moment it looks like nothing is going to come back. Not surprisingly really, I know it's lost all its nutrients, so how do I turn the useless mounds of old compost into soil that I can grow things in without digging it all out?

Thanks in advance

Mortal

sounds like you need some organic matter in there rather than bags of multi-purpose compost which only have enough feed in them for 6 weeks.

Garden compost is the stuff you'd ideally like. I know that you can buy bags of this from chain diy stores to get you started, and you can mix this into your soil.

If possible, make 2010 the year you start to make your own. Some councils have compost bins for sale cheap, but any diy store will have them too.
There's a thread on here about what to 'feed' your compost bin, but as a basic rule of thumb, you can add anything that once grew, but hasn't been cooked or processed. ie kitchen peelings etc. You need to also add 'dry' ingredients, so you can use your shredded bills for this, or newspapers.

Every year, you'll need to mulch your flowerbeds with the lovely crumbly home-made compost. In spring and again in autumn, and this will put the nutrients back into your soil, and help keep your flowers growing strongly.

Having said all this, this winter was a harsh one, and many people lost even hardy plants, so don't feel too bad about it.

ixwood

What did you plant? Lots of plants won't come back. Garden Centres don't really want you to plant stuff that does come back every year, as they'll have no customers left.

Only ever buy Hardy (not half hardy or frost hardy) shurbs, perennials and self sowing annuals and make sure you plant them in suitable places for their needs/preferences.

I doubt there's much wrong with your soil. Heavy veg cropping takes a lot out of soil, but ornamentals don't and mother nature is constantly fertilising the ground via worms, leaves, insect bodies/droppings, bird and animal dropping etc.

Any pics?