Building up your soil

Getting your garden soil to be nice and fertile is something that should be a way of life if your plants are to thrive.

Here are a few points that you may wish to consider:

Soil is always improved by the addition of good organic material like compost - you can either buy it from your local garden center or you can make your own with garden waste and leaves etc.
The more organic material put into the soil, the healthier it will be - encouraging earth worms and other micro organisms that are beneficial to both soil and plants.
Mulching your soil is also very important - it helps to retain moisture in the soil, protects it from being washed away in heavy rains, prevents weeds and eventually breaks down to feed the soil.

There is another way of improving the soil and that is by the chop and drop method.
In other words, when cutting back plants or weeding, drop everything back on to the soil - this will act as a mulch and eventually break down.
It also allows beneficial insects that may be on the cuttings to remain in the garden instead of being taken away and dumped.

There are many people that think that the garden beds must look neat and tidy with just the bare soil around the plants.
This is not what happens in nature - plants grow, shed leaves and when their season is over, seeds fall and the plant dies and falls on to the soil to provide nutrients for the next season.
Nature works in a cycle and we should watch and learn from it.

Worm castings and worm tea are also excellent to add to your garden if you have a worm bin - I have mentioned this in a previous post.