I have spoken before about the importance of enriching your soil, but today, I thought that I would share a few more facts that may help you.
Of course, the best way to have good soil, is to make sure that there is plenty of organic matter i.e. compost incorporated into it.
You may be one of the lucky ones that has wonderful fertile soil, but most of us do not have this.
How does one know if their soil has good organic material in it?
It is easy - simply dig down about ten cm and then scoop up a handful of the soil at the bottom, squeeze it in your hand and if it sticks together, then this shows that the soil has organic matter because it is holding moisture.
If the soil does not stick together, then you know it needs you to put in compost.
As mentioned before, I do the chop and drop method i.e. weeds, cuttings, grass etc., are left on top of the soil to break down naturally.
During our wet winter, there is always plenty of leaves etc to rake up and throw on to the garden beds, which I do and it is wonderful to see how nature works for us.
Making your own compost is a great way to always have some on hand as well.
If you buy compost, make sure that it is a hundred percent organic and has no pesticide residues in it - especially for vegetable growing.
Here you see the layer of leaves, twigs etc., that is thrown on to the garden beds.
This image shows how everything is breaking down underneath the top layer of leaves - and by spring, it will be lovely rich organic food for the plants and will have a good content of earth worms too.