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Vegetable garden soil - how well do you know yours?

In this edition please find an article on soils and their preparation together with two topical tips on compost and disease control, and a new web page with answers to various 'vegetable garden questions' posed on the site and another on 'healthy vegetables', together with an autumn update on my vegetable garden.

How well do you know your soil?

• Have you checked the pH recently - pH affects nutrient uptake, with the optimum being between pH 6.5 and 7.5 - Lime if your soil pH is lower than this
• Do you have soil compaction? Dig a hole with a spade and see for yourself
• Is your soil starved of organic matter? - Compare your soil with your neighbours - darker brown and crumbly is better
How well do you vegetable plants grow? - stunting, small produce and droughting out are signs of poor soil conditions
• Do you have to water often or does the soil water log easily? - Both are signs of extreme soil types sandy or clayey - ameliorate the soil with addition of organic matter
• Do you have plenty of earthworms? - a sign of good healthy soil condition - feed them with organic matter and reduce the amount of cultivation/ digging to boost numbers

Your soil is the foundation for successful vegetable gardening. Look after it well and enjoy the rewards, abuse it and suffer the frustration of poor crops.

Follow the links for further detailed information on vegetable garden soil and to sign up for my up-coming e-book on soils and soil preparation follow the links.

Bonus articles: As an Expert Author for Ezine articles I publish roughly bi-monthly on a broad range of vegetable gardening topics. Click the graphic to see the current articles there on easy vegetable gardening, making compost, soil preparation and weed control.

Add plenty of organic matter to your soil each autumn or spring ahead of planting. Not only does this maintain good soil but it can help as a mulch keeping weeds down and moisture in. Allow the worms to drag it in. Note the benefits in the next crop.

With cold wet seasons - diseases can run rife;

• Remove and burn diseased leaves/ plants to minimise spread to surrounding plants in season
• Ensure air can circulate between plants to maintain lower humidity
• Take care to dispose of diseased material on the bonfire and avoid shorterm composting when your clear the site in the autumn

• Questions answered - Question posed to me by web visitors like 'How can I improve my light soil?' are answered
• Healthy vegetables - The value of vegetables in your diet

Successful sequential planting paid off this year; 1-2 rows of lettuce and beetroot sown every 1-2 months through the Spring and Summer meant we were supplied through to now.

Sequential plantings of beans and peas on separate plots kept produce coming and avoided disease spread from earlier crops.

Potatoes were a great success with plenty of rain this year and with tight soil in the ridges slugs were minimised, but disease took the main crop potato haulm in September so it was swiftly removed to prevent spread and we continue to dig them as needed.

Although outdoor cucumbers did very well enabling me to supply friends and neighbours too, poor summer conditions (cool, lacking in sun) limited production of courgettes and butter nut squash so we eat well but with no excess to store.

We continue to pull carrots, orange and free of carrot root fly - Yes, Yummy! Crops were protected by inter-cropping with leeks with a plastic barrier around.

The raised beds, edged or otherwise, have again proved their worth with easy access through our wet summer and autumn, no soil compaction by feet.

The overwinter brassicae (curly kale, cabbage, and broccoli) are growing well as is the Swiss Chard.

Now the main growing season is over its the time for clearing and preparing for next year;

• All dead or dying and diseased plant material has been removed and burnt to minimise disease spread
• Plots are left uncultivated generally, but any with tight sub-soil are lifted with a fork at full depth, but not turned
• Compost will be added as needed over the soil surface and the worms allowed to thrive in their undisturbed home cultivating and aerating the soil for me for next years crops

As for my new green house, completed in July; well we had tomatoes, they actually ripened, eventually, but a great learning is to open it more and avoid conditions becoming too humid as its encourages disease even in this enclosed virgin growing space. I look forward to being able to bring on earlier crops as seedlings for my vegetable garden in 2009 and planting up the greenhouse earlier, hopefully disease free!

Best wishes and happy vegetable gardening.

Colin (easy-vegetable-gardening.com)