Soil test kit

[magpiecottage]

We've just started working in the garden of our new house. We've done all the cutting down and want to do some planting

I guess we need to add some nutrients to the soil, do we test the soil and add specific things to different areas depending on ph levels what we want to plant, or can I just chuck in a load of manure?

If we go for the ph test, can anyone recommend a brand?

[Aberdeenplotter]

What do you intend planting. It will all flow from that.

[Two_Sheds]

I have never used a pH kit, and none of the Master Gardeners I met at the weekend ever had, either. If your soil hasn't been previously used for growing vegetables, it's unlikely to need any additional feeding (nutrients).

You will add goodness every year in the form of compost.

[magpiecottage]

We'd like a veg patch, and will start with whichever is easiest to grow! Also some flowering plants, and then at one end we have some fruit trees, I think they're all apples, but they need a lot of love. I think they'll need to be pruned back quite a bit. I'd.like to add some more fruit trees there, as well as some wildflowers.

[rustylady]

Do be careful with pruning the trees. If you can post pictures on here we have a member of the Vine who is extremely knowledgeable about fruit trees (FB), and he will be able to tell you whether they need pruning and where to prune.

What is your soil like (clay, sand, or what)?

Re the veg. Don't worry about what is easy - what do you like to eat?

[magpiecottage]

I've got some photos of the trees, so I will post them later.

We eat pretty much every veg, luckily my daughter loves them.

The soil doesn't seem too clay-y, it's not been waterlogged or anything. Other than that, I don't know.

[Two_Sheds]

The soil doesn't seem too clay-y, it's not been waterlogged or anything. Other than that, I don't know.

It sounds just right then. My soil is sandy (I'm half a mile from the beach), which doesn't hold onto water or nutrients. Clay, as you noted, does hold onto water.
The "remedy" for both is the same: adding garden compost. It's what forests do: in autumn the leaves drop, some wild animal/bird manure is added, it's all a mulch on the floor, and next year the trees grow fruit/nuts/leaves.
No digging, no pH test, no boxes of this-and-that from the Garden Centre.

Wildflowers like poor soil, generally. The really wild weedy wildflowers, that is.

I grow cutting flowers on my lotty, in amongst the veggies. In the first year I planted them, but now they self-seed. If they come up in the wrong place, I might move them but generally it's a free for all. Photos, if you're interested, in the link below

[Veggielot]

I got an probe which was meant to measure the PH. Used it a couple of times when I first got it three years ago, its spent the rest of the time sat in a draw. I did promise myself that once I had everything sorted out on my plot I would start checking the PH level but so far never got round to doing it.

[magpiecottage]

That's what I was worried about!

I have access to loads of free manure, so I will add that in once we've finished clearing the site, and I been advised that fruit trees like bonemeal and hoof and horn, so I'll add that in the orchard.

[rustylady]

That's what I was worried about!

I have access to loads of free manure, so I will add that in once we've finished clearing the site, and I been advised that fruit trees like bonemeal and hoof and horn, so I'll add that in the orchard.

Mature fruit trees are unlikely to need feeding.

[magpiecottage]

No, but we'll be adding some more trees.