If your garden plants’ blooming propensity and yield leave something to be desired, the quality of the garden soil comes into focus. These instructions explain how you can use simple means to draw well-founded conclusions about the soil conditions. If defects come to light, they can be quickly remedied with the help of our tips.

Garden soil can be adjusted by adding compost or sand at will

What characterizes a perfect garden floor?

Your flowers, shrubs and vegetables want a balanced mix of loam, sand, clay and humus. If these components are in a healthy relationship to each other, then there is active soil life consisting of microorganisms as a basic requirement for vital growth, flowering and profitability. The following properties characterize the ideal garden soil:

  • A crumbly, fluffy and yet structurally stable consistency
  • Rich in nutrients and trace elements
  • Profound and with reliable drainage
  • Moderately dry, fresh or fresh-damp, with no risk of waterlogging
  • Ideal pH between 5.5 and 7.5

Few home gardeners enjoy the privilege of an impeccable garden soil. However, that is no reason to do without your own ornamental, vegetable and herb garden. By mixing in simple additives, you compensate for any deficiencies that occur.

Determining soil quality with a hand test - this is how it works

The actual crumb structure of the soil determines which aggregates you use to improve the garden soil. You can reliably determine the soil type with a hand test. To do this, form a handful of soil between your palms into a roll. You can use the following properties of the soil sample to distinguish between the different types of soil:

  • Sandy soil: mainly granular and too crumbly to form a ball
  • Clay soil: compresses into a smooth ball and roll, doesn't stick to palms
  • Clay soil: forms a sticky, smooth roll with a shiny surface when rubbed over

Only in exceptional cases are you dealing with pure sand, loam or clay soil. It is usually a mixture of all three components. With the help of the hand sample, you can determine which component is dominant in your garden soil or contained too much. From this you draw conclusions about the right measures to optimize the structure in such a way that it comes close to the ideal conditions.

Soil found wanting - do it now

Only a few survival artists from the plant kingdom thrive in pure sandy soil, such as cacti and succulents. If there are still small amounts of humus, this soil quality is at best suitable for a rock or heath garden. If the hand test indicates a too sandy, light structure, give the soil more stability with the following measures so that water and nutrients are better stored. How to do it right:

  • In autumn, work 3 to 5 liters of mature compost per square meter into the soil that has been dug up
  • Alternatively, mix in composted horse manure or chicken manure
  • Then sow a hardy green manure
  • Mow the biomass in spring and rake it into the soil

Test PH value

In order to determine the pH value in the garden soil, garden centers and hardware stores offer test sets that do not require any prior chemical knowledge. If the result indicates a value below 5.5, this is regulated with the help of algae lime or garden lime (9.70€). As a rule of thumb: 10 grams of lime per liter of soil increases the value by one point.

Optimizing heavy soil - this is how it works

Plants are constantly threatened by waterlogging and a lack of oxygen in soil that is too heavy. In addition, the soil stays cold for a long time in spring, making it difficult for your perennials to grow. Special soil additives, which loosen and aerate the soil, provide a remedy. To improve soil quality:

  • Dig the soil two spades deep before winter sets in
  • Work mature compost into the soil in a dosage of 3 liters per square meter
  • Sprinkle fine-grained sand on the surface and distribute evenly with the rake

This combination of different aggregates eliminates current compaction and effectively prevents this problem. With a deep-rooted green manure you round off the package of measures. Lupins, fodder radish and other deep-rooting plants also loosen up the soil, making waterlogging and lack of air a thing of the past.

tips

Hand sample and pH value test are not enough to determine the soil quality if you want to create a garden after new construction. Instead, take soil samples from 10 to 12 spots and send them to a special laboratory. There, the experts create a detailed soil analysis and give well-founded recommendations for planting and fertilizer requirements.

Category:

Garden design