Pittwater Online News

Generally soil is classified into three groups - clay, loam and sand. To determine your soil type, just dig down about 10 centimetres, grab a handful of soil then squeeze it into a one mass. Loamy soil forms a rough ball but will crumble easily. This soil type is an ideal mixture of coarser and finer particles and organic matter.

Organic matter is anything that derives from something living and includes humus from decaying plant and animal material, such as animal manures, kitchen scraps, garden prunings, pine bark and sawdust. Keeping organic matter part of your garden’s soil structure improves not only the soil structure itself, it also aids aeration and drainage. This encourages soil life such as microbe, earthworms and adds nutrients to the soil.

The water holding capacity of soil is also important. To work this out, tip a litre of water into a pot of soil and measure what has drained out. In loamy soil water retention is usually pretty good, but it can be improved by adding more organic matter, such as compost or aged animal manure.

Clay soil consists of fine particles and as most know, when you squeeze moist clay to form a smooth, round ball it will go hard once dry. The advantage of clay soil is that it holds onto moisture and nutrients longer and there's less moisture lost through evaporation. This means that plants need to be watered less frequently.

The disadvantage of heavy clay soil is that it becomes waterlogged, with poor drainage and aeration. Gardeners with a heavy clay soil need to mix in some gypsum - a natural mineral. Gypsum helps to break up the clay and will improve its structure so that it forms crumbs that are easy to work. Add in some organic matter, such as compost or aged animal manures, because they're important for all soils.

Sandy soil has particles that are quite large and coarse compared with clay. Even a wet sandy soil won't stay together and once these soils dry out they become hydrophobic, or water repellent. Sandy soils are a problem for plants as there's no water holding capacity in the soil.

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The best solution for sandy soil is to add organic matter such as compost or aged animal manure, and mix it through the soil. By mixing fifty-fifty organic matter with sandy soil it will improve the water holding capacity of the soil. You can also try using products such as soil-wetters, but look for biodegradable, organically based soil-wetters. Others, such as polymer-based or petro chemical based products may pollute the soil.

When it comes to using fertilisers, use organic-based fertilisers, such as pelletised manures or blood and bone. Soluble fertilisers leach through sandy soils and can contribute to the blue-green algae problem. Once your plants are in, top up the soil with an organic-based mulch, such as peastraw or bark. Healthy soil means healthy plants and it's absolutely vital for a waterwise garden.

If we have the Summer currently being forecast, a waterwise garden and doing some ‘ground work’ now will help keep your back yard greener through long hot dry months.

You can also choose to plant out some natives this Spring; these are far more likely to do well in this environment and will provide food and shelter for local birds and animals.

Please use a 'safety first' principle when applying mulch and fertilisers to your garden and wear the proper equipment: gloves and a mask and even eye protection. 

With August now here it’s the perfect time to be doing some of those jobs in the garden that may have been neglected during Winter. Tidying, planting, soil preparation and pruning are all important tasks that will give your garden new life and prepare it for Spring!

A great place to start is a general tidy up of the garden. Remove weeds, and then adding mulch to bare spots can help stop any new weeds sprouting. When mulching around the base of trees, leave a few centimetres clear of the trunks to reduce the chance of rot on the stems occurring.

Clearing drains and roof gutters where leaves have gathered in large amounts is a great way to tidy the garden and ensure Spring rains have somewhere to runoff other than back into your home. The cleared material can go into the compost.

Prune unwanted or dead branches off trees and shrubs once the new growth has begun. This will allow more air and light through the branches and help to reduce diseases or pests developing. Now is the perfect time to prune roses as well, just before they bud. You can also clear any dead or obstructive branches and open up the inside. Your fruit trees will also benefit from a tidy up at this time of year before buds fully develop and bloom.

You can begin to plant early Spring vegetables during the next few weeks, just remember to protect seedlings from colder mornings if you’re in a shadowed nook of Pittwater that doesn’t get sun until late morning this time of year. Use items from around the house like an overturned bucket or a large flower pot. Also, think about planting several vegetable varieties which mature at different times to have a prolonged harvest this season.

Once you have done your Soil Preparations and tending for the Spring, leave these to settle for a few weeks and then you can start transplanting existing shrubs. Just make sure you give them a decent water in of we don’t get some decent rain to moisten up the soil soon.

Spring is a wonderful time of year and it’s only a few weeks off now. Make good use of your time during these last cool weeks of winter to tidy and prepare your garden so you receive the best crop or yield you’ve had!

And your garden will love you for it! Now, and into Summer.

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