Monday 26 March 2007

TESTING THE pH OF YOUR SOIL



Photo: The hyacinths have escaped the waterlogging.


I’ve been up to my neck in things this week. Well up to my knees in mud actually. I’ve been attempting to tidy up my herbaceous borders, but the water table seems to be getting the better of me. We have had so much rain over the last week or so, that the soil in my borders is waterlogged. I was hoping to put in some bare rooted shrubs but I think I will wait a few days until things dry up a bit. There is still time for planting bare rooted deciduous shrubs, trees and hedging for another month or so as most of the plants are just starting to show there fresh new growth, don’t plant them in a puddle though!

TESTING THE Ph OF YOUR SOIL
The soil I have been wading in this week had a high percentage of clay in it, most of it stuck to my Wellingtons and spade! If you are in any doubt about the type of soil in your garden then you can do a few tests. Firstly test the pH of the soil; pH refers to the acidity or alkalinity of the soil. There is a number scale of 1 to 14. Acid soils have a pH of below seven, neutral is pH7 and alkaline is above seven. If you buy a soil testing kit from a garden centre or D.I.Y. store then these usually rely on colour so you don’t have to worry about the pH scale too much. Acid soil turns the solution in the kit a yellow orange colour and neutral turns it green, alkaline will be dark green.

THE SIX SOIL TYPES
The bulk of soil is made up of a mixture of organic matter, rock and mineral particles, which keep the plant in place. It is the air, water and nutrients in the ground, though that the growing plant really relies upon. These are taken up by the roots and then used by the plant to form flowers and leaves.
There are six main soil types and knowing which type your garden is as well as the pH, will help you choose the type of plants to put into your beds and borders and save costly mistakes buying plants unsuitable for your garden.


LOAMY SOIL
Loamy soil is regarded as the ultimate soil as most plants will grow in it. This is brown and crumbly in texture and similar to the soil found on well-tended vegetable patches. I t is rarely waterlogged in winter or dry in summer and supports a wide range of plants. Loamy soil is light and easy to dig and is naturally high in nutrients.

CHALKY SOIL
I don’t think we see much of this around here. Chalky soil is always alkaline which will restrict the amount of plants grown in it. The soil is very free draining and is full of clumps of white chalk or flint. Chalky soil needs frequent watering in summer.

CLAY SOIL
Clay soil is sticky to handle and can easily be rolled into a ball shape. It is naturally high in nutrients. This type of soil often gets very dry in summer, with cracks appearing on the surface, making it difficult to get water to the plant roots. Yet in winter, it can be constantly wet and waterlogging is common. It is hard to dig at most times of the year. (This one sounds familiar)

SILTY SOIL
Silt soil is made up of fine grains, originally deposited by a river. The tiny particles give it a silky feeling if rubbed between the fingers. It won’t press into a ball like clay but you can make sausage shapes out of it if you have nothing better to do! . Silty soil can be badly drained, but are not prone to waterlogging.

PEATY SOIL
Some of the best farmland is peaty and most gardens round the peninsula have a high peat content. Plants grow happily in it as long as they can adjust to the relatively acid conditions, or lime can be added to balance things out by. Almost black to look at, easy to dig over and spongy to the touch, peaty soils can be soaking in winter and be bone dry during most of the summer.

SANDY SOIL
Sandy soil feels rough and gritty when handled and will not press into shapes like clay soil. It usually has a sandy brown colour and is easy to dig over. Waterlogging is rare as they are usually very free draining watering and feeding of plants is needed on a regular basis. It is quick to warm up in the spring, so sowing and planting can be done earlier in the year than with clay or silty soil. Gardens near the coastline are generally sandy soil.

Horticultural.

STRAWBERRIES


I’ve been tidying up strawberry plants this week. I mainly have the alpine type, not because they are tastier than the larger types, but they seem to go further when my two children dive into them in summer. Every day there are fresh ones to nibble on, they tend to have the same amount of seed on them as the larger type which makes them a little crunchy but nobody has complained yet.
Working on the strawberry bed reminded me of the time when I was a teenager at the height of summer and my only form of transport was a pedal bike.


Every summer a few friends and myself would hop on our machines and travel the fifteen miles to the nearest strawberry farm. The farm had a “Pick your own punnet” system, so when we arrived the first thing to do was to pick up a small plastic tray from the gate and proceed to the acres of strawberry plants all laid out in straight rows for easy picking. This pick your own system obviously works as a money making venture, as most people that arrived collected what they needed and jumped into their cars and headed for the nearest shop for a container of double cream and probably headed home to have the strawberries for their tea. I realized later that these people probably made the wise decision of taking the fruit home and washing all the chemicals off them first.

We were having none of that. After traveling the fifteen miles to get there we were always intent on making a day of things. So for a start we all carried our own containers of warm cream stuffed into our bike bags.

Strawberries at the time were only really available in the summer season, the fruit from the continent never appeared in the supermarkets, so when they were in season you had to get stuck in and that is exactly what we did. An eight-hour shift of cramming strawberries into our mouths began. Of course there was the odd break to moan about the aching in the stomachs or to have the competition for the largest red patches on the knees of our trousers, I remember I used to wear trousers that were off white to get the most dramatic strawberry stains you ever saw! Pretty sad eh?

Anyway after the marathon eating session we had the brave faced cheek to walk up to the woman who was sitting behind a table at the gate ready to weigh our pickings, and handing over half a punnet with about six strawberries in them. The woman weighed them and with a frown on her face accepted the few pennies they cost. We found the fifteen-mile bike ride back home a very painful experience, with a good number of stops behind the hedgerows along the way for all of us.
By the time we got back home with the punnet, the strawberries had been baked to a pulp in the sun. My friends and I decided on the way home that we were never going to eat another strawberry ever again. I would proudly hand the punnet pulp over to my mother, declaring that I brought them back as a special present from my travels, and that she could eat them all for herself, (I was such a considerate child), I wonder what she thought happened to my trousers?


STRAWBERRIES
Strawberry plants are usually quite short lived, usually around five years. The plants weaken and are more prone to disease. It would be a good idea to obtain plants that have been checked by the Ministry of Inspectors to make sure that they are free of pests and disease. Sometimes if you accept runners from a friend’s garden you may not get very good quality plants.
Strawberries can be grown in tiny spaces, on the patio, windowsill or even a balcony. They grow well in places with good drainage and plenty of moisture. The main thing to do if you are putting the plants outside is to make sure you have prepared the ground thoroughly, removing perennial weeds and feeding the ground well with some well-rotted manure and a bit of bonemeal. They could be planted through polythene or straw put underneath the plants to stop the fruit from rotting. Look out for greenfly and slugs.

VARIETIES
There can be a very long season for strawberries as there are early, main season and late season types. Here are a few of the more popular choices:

Early: Emily. Vigorous and resistant to leaf diseases.

Main season: There is a new variety on the market called Eros, which is proving to be very popular and has very good disease resistance.

Late: Symphony. This plant is tolerant of the dreaded vine weevil, and can get powdery mildew, but the yield makes up for its shortcomings.

There is another plant on the market that is classed as an “everbearing” type, called Calypso; they fruit from June to September.


Horticultural.

CHECK SHRUBS IN SPRING




Inspect the shoots of shrubs such as Hebes and, if this hard spring weather we have been having has damaged them, prune them back to the sound and healthy wood.




Horticultural.





SOFTWOOD CUTTINGS IN LATE SPRING

Photo: Cotoneaster take well from softwood cuttings.


It is a great time of the year to be taking cuttings. Softwood cuttings are particularly successful in early summer. Choose the soft stems of plants such as weigela, philadelphus, potentilla and cotoneaster. Choose healthy young, non-flowering shoot tips about 7.5 to 10cm long. (3-4in) Remove the lower leaves and leave a leaf node showing. This will be where the roots will come. Insert the stems into gritty compost and cover with a polythene bag to maintain a high humidity. Ventilate more freely once the cutting is rooted in about 8-10 weeks. Make a slit in the bag, then remove the plant entirely after about another two

Horticultural.

SPRING PRUNE FOR IVY


It is a good plan to clip ivy growing on walls at this time of year. The work can be done very quickly with a pair of shears. Simply clip off the leaves, leaving the stems practically bare, and then brush them down with a stiff broom, getting out all dead leaves and dirt. The plants will look very bare at first, but will soon get new leaves and will be much better for a clean up.

Horticultural.

SLUGS AND SNAILS


Photo: Attracting birds into the garden will help to keep the slugs down.



A few years ago, when I lived in a housing estate I had a small garden that I planted up with an herbaceous border and a rockery. These were easily maintained, but slugs were a real pest. My eldest was just a toddler and I did not want to use slug pellets. My favoured approach was to go out after dark with my torch (usually about midnight) and pick the slugs off my plants, then disposing of them in various barbaric means. For example, stabbing with a pointy stick, snipping them in half or shaking them in salt bags. My neighbour initially thought I had lost my senses, wandering around the garden at such a late hour, but after an explanation, he was at it too. Unfortunately I forgot to mention to him that it is best to kill them, and so he decided to put them, still alive, into his wheelie bin. He kept his bin in his garage that was attached to his kitchen. Yes you’ve guessed it, his wife, who wasn’t best fond of things slimy, got up to find a mass invasion of her kitchen!

Slugs and Snails
There are about 30 types of slugs and snails. Not all of them are pests, although I wouldn’t be able to spot a friendly slug myself! The largest ones seem to be the least harmful to plants as they mainly live on dead organic matter. It’s the small slugs that do the most damage, some of which live underground and eat the plant roots.

So how can we keep slugs at bay?


My lad just collects them and keeps them as pets in a jam jar on the bookcase. As I cant see this being a popular option what about my mother in laws concentration camp. She collects slugs in a large tub with a lettuce leaf and once a week takes them to her friend who keeps ducks.

Other methods include:

Keep the area near vulnerable plants clear of dead foliage. Check in damp places nearby, under pots and stones etc destroying any slugs you find.


Attract wildlife into your garden such as birds and frogs. They will happily do the work for you.
With slug pellets, always follow the instructions carefully. Traditional pellets are not ecologically friendly as they are poisonous to birds as well as people (be careful if small children are around). There are some eco-friendly products around if you can find them. Those containing aluminium sulphate are less harmful although they are only effective until it rains (or you water).


Beer traps are set by sinking containers filled with flat beer around the garden. The slugs fall in and drown (not a bad way to go some might say). Clean them out regularly.


Divert the slugs from your favourite plants by putting bran in a terracotta pot and lay it on its side.
For plants in containers, try putting Vaseline around the rim of the pot. This tends to get a bit dirty after a while so try winding thin copper wire around the pot. The slugs and snails feel a shock from the naturally occurring electrical current and turn back.


Crush and bake egg shells to scatter around the plants. Sharp gravel or soot would also be effective.


Introduce biological control in the form of parasitic slug nematodes in spring. These work well on the root-eating slugs.



MORE ON SLUGS




I’ve been extremely lucky this summer with slugs, or lack of them I should say. For some reason they have decided to go elsewhere for their meals and most of my plants seem unaffected by the little slimy visitors. I think it might be something to do with the fact that it is a new garden and most of it is covered with wood chip and webbing. I have had a few e-mails recently from people who claim that they have found humane solutions to the imminent invasion every year. Most of them are good and generally effective. I have my doubts about keeping in with the neighbours though if you were to throw them over the fence at night as someone suggested! Here are the pick of the rest.

Fill a jar with cheap beer and sink it into the ground. The boozed up slugs can then be put on the compost bin. S.M

Place the skins of half cut grapefruit, cut side down, around vulnerable plants. Collect the sleepy slugs underneath EJ. G.

Bake eggshells and grind them up into sharp grit. A scattering around plants will keep the slugs off. M.C.

Put a smear of Vaseline around the pots. JF.

The next suggestions were all from Anne Martin, who seems to have most of the slugs in Inishowen in her garden!

Collect them with a brush and pan in the small hours and release them in the wild.

Use a sawdust barrier. The wood working places locally will usually give you a bag for free.

Encourage frogs into your garden.
Hostas seem well protected with pea gravel. Scatter this around the base of tender plants.



Horticultural.


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