Ensure your vegetable garden soil
is in best condition

Successful production depends on good vegetable garden soil structure;

• get it wrong you have nothing but hard toil
• get it right and the rewards are endless
• you too may even get complimented!!

But, first you must identify your garden soil problems and learn how to overcome them.

Examine your soil

So how do you know what state your vegetable garden soil is in?

Well it comes down to a bit of exploration and detective work, and yes, getting your fingers dirty like most gardeners do!

So find a trusty spade and go down to your plot. Dig a hole the width and depth of your spade, cutting the 3 sides towards the sun with the spade, leaving the one facing the sun to be bust as you lever out the earth;


Perfect garden soil is characterised by;

• a good earthy smell
• an open (plenty of air pockets, pores and cracks) crumbly structure(breaks easily into granular pieces)
• lots of roots and pores penetrating the soil to depth
• plenty of life (fungi, earthworms) with spiders, beetles and other small insects on or in the soil
• such soils are free draining, but conserve moisture.

• a stale/ rotting smell
• tight compacted structure which is difficult to break
• with few roots and pores and little fungal or animal life
• roots may be mostly horizontal and cannot go below a certain depth
• when broken the soil is in larger angular pieces or worse flat plate-like structures
• such soils can be waterlogged and do not drain well and although maybe wet on top after rain can be dry lower down

Check the depth of your top soil as this will govern both the depth of digging and choice of technique (no-dig, shallow dig, traditional dig and use of raised beds or flat beds).

Soil type

Check the soil type by examining a representative sample of soil taken from the top 5-7cm soil taken after scraping off the surface 3-5cm. The mix of sand, silt and clay determines the soil type and basal characteristics of soil.

Soil drainage

Whilst you have still got the hole, pour in some water using a watering can/ bucket and see whether it drains away.

It should slowly drain away.

If the water stays you need to explore the deeper sub-soil which is probably damaged by compaction and will need soil lifting or the use of raised beds.

Garden soil pH governs nutrient uptake and growth

Check soil pH by taking 3-4 representative samples from your plot, mix thoroughly and test the combined sample in a pH test kit from your local garden store.

Soil organic matter

Check soil organic matter content by comparing the colour of the soil where you are planning you vegetable garden with an area nearby which has been left undisturbed for 10+ years. The darker and more crumbly the soil the higher the organic matter content.

Encourage your garden worms to multiply and work hard for you.

Vegetable garden soil is one of the most important factors to get right for success of your vegetable garden. The newly launched eBook 'The Secrets of good soil preparation' tells you all you need to know.

For more information

• Vegetable garden soil preparation




• To return to home of vegetable gardening