Front garden soil

[annie8]

Apologies in advance for the rant, but I have such a love/hate relationship with my front garden. For a small space it causes me hug frustration. It was pretty awful when we moved in a few years ago and we completely changed the layout from a concrete path down the middle and some old, overgrown shrubs down the sides and lots of weeds coming through a weed membrane that had been down for decades. I really like the new shape. Last year was the first year of really having the new planting it was full of colour mainly herbaceous perennials and annuals. The thing that drives me crazy is the soil. Removing most of the plants and the membrane was tough and the soil was so hard we broke various tools trying to dig it. I have added a whole load of top soil, dug it over and added as much compost as I have been able to. It’s still brick hard though. Was trying to hoe it yesterday to get rid of some weeds and all I could manage in places was to skim a slice off the top layer. Ended up having to use a fork to break the soil. Suspect that is why some of my bulbs are struggling to poke through. Doesn’t help that the soil seems slightly clay. Despite all that it had always been full of worms and the plants last year grew well. I just despair of ever having soil I can just dig into without having to get the ice axe out again. Do I just need to remind myself to be patient until all the material I add starts to improve the soil structure? Have attached a few before and after pics.

[nickdub]

Chuck any spare organic material on the soil as you can and the structure will gradually improve. Just be a bit wary of increasing the fertility of the soil too much as some flowers perform better in poorer soil, so it does depend on what sort of flowers you aim to grow there in the long run.

I tend to grow more shrubs and climbers such as clematis than herbaceous plants. Being a lazy gardener I know they will perform whether I look after them or not. :-)

[mothhawk]

You have a good show of flowers there, Annie. Just keep adding whatever compost and mulch you can get your hands on and eventually you'll end up with a soil structure just like Monty Don's. He admits to adding nearly a hundred TONS of mushroom compost to Longmeadow.

[annie8]

Have got 3 compost daleks on the go and will work towards getting those ready for the autumn. I also have a barrel full of leaves from last year that I’ll try to get into reasonable leaf mould by autumn. I just can’t make enough home made compost. Bought 3 ton bags of compost last month but that all went on topping up my raised beds for veg and fruit growing. I just get so envious when I see Monty digging and his spade goes in so easily. According to my husband it’s getting better because we don’t need to use the pick axe any more and have moved on to a fork!

[peanut]

You've made it look so pretty Annie

[annie8]

Thanks. It was pretty full on last year and was chuffed with how it looked certainly in the summer months. I will make a few changes this year though. It’s all a learning curve isn’t it.

[Containergardener]

Looks lovely. Well done.
I have soil issues too and am tackling making compost, leaf mould and anything I can help it with.
Good luck.