How do I tell if my soil is compacted?
The screwdriver test, the spade test and the four surface signs — plus how to find the depth of the problem, which decides what you do about it.
beginner20 min4 min read
Soil & Compost
The part of gardening that decides everything else.
87 guides in Garden
How do I test manure or compost for weedkiller before I use it?
The bean bioassay: three pots, three weeks, and a definite answer on a load of manure, straw or compost before it goes anywhere near your vegetable beds.
beginner30 min4 min readHow do I test my soil pH and change it?
Taking a sample that means something, reading the result, and the realistic limits of what you can change in an open garden.
beginner40 min3 min readWhat is the difference between compost, manure and topsoil?
What each material physically is, what job it does, and the one that fills a raised bed versus the one that feeds a border.
beginner15 min4 min readWhen should I use a high-potash feed, and on what?
Tomato feed is a high-potash liquid and it works on far more than tomatoes — which plants want it, at what point in their year, and the two situations where it does harm.
beginner15 min3 min readHow do I know when my compost is ready to use?
The look, feel and smell of finished compost, the cress test that settles it, and what immature compost does to plants if you use it too early.
beginner20 min4 min readHow do I tell if my soil is healthy?
Four things you can read from a single spadeful — structure, colour, roots and life — and what each of them is actually telling you to change.
beginner20 min4 min readHow much fertiliser do I actually need?
How to turn grams per square metre into something you can actually measure without scales, how to work out what a bed needs, and why half strength twice as often beats guessing.
beginner15 min4 min readShould I put weed membrane under bark or gravel in a border?
In a planted border, no — it fails within three years and leaves a mess that outlasts the planting. The three places it genuinely belongs, and what to do instead.
beginner20 min5 min readWhat compost should I use for lavender, rosemary and olives in pots?
Why multipurpose compost kills drought-adapted plants in containers, the grit proportion that fixes it, and the different mix each of the common Mediterranean plants actually wants.
beginner15 min3 min readWhat do I do if I have already spread contaminated manure?
Confirming it, deciding between removal and waiting, what you can safely grow in the meantime, and the honest timescale for the bed coming back.
intermediate1 hr 30 min5 min readWhich mulch should I use — bark, wood chip, gravel or compost?
What each mulch material is actually good at, where each one is the wrong choice, and the depth that decides whether any of them works.
beginner30 min3 min readWhy do my seedlings do badly in peat-free compost?
Four specific things go wrong when small seed meets a coarse mix — poor contact, surface drying, nitrogen drawdown and over-rich multipurpose — and each has a direct fix.
beginner20 min4 min readHow do I buy topsoil without getting rubbish?
What the grades actually mean, the questions that separate a good supplier from a bad one, and the twenty minutes of inspection on delivery that saves you a decade of trouble.
beginner25 min5 min readHow do I improve sandy soil that dries out?
Why sandy soil loses both water and nutrients, the materials that actually hold onto them, and the planting and feeding regime that suits it.
beginner2 hr3 min readHow do I relieve compacted soil?
Three different depths of compaction and the different tool each one needs — plus the biological route that fixes it permanently while the mechanical one only buys time.
intermediate3 hr4 min readIs my soil contaminated, and is it safe to grow food in?
The site histories that raise a real question, what a home test can and cannot tell you, and the practical measures that let you grow food safely on ground you are unsure about.
advanced40 min5 min readWhy is my compost bin full of little flies?
What the cloud of flies actually is, why it means the heap is out of balance rather than diseased, and the two changes that clear it in a week.
beginner20 min3 min readWill a raised bed fix my drainage problem?
It lifts roots out of the wet, which is often exactly enough — but it removes no water at all, and there are three situations where it changes nothing.
beginner25 min4 min readCan I compost weeds without spreading them round the garden?
Which weeds go straight on the heap, which need drowning first, and which must never go near it at all — sorted by what actually survives a cold garden heap.
beginner30 min4 min readDo bark and wood chip steal nitrogen from the soil?
On the surface, effectively no. Dug in, badly — and the difference is entirely about how much of the wood is in contact with soil.
intermediate15 min4 min readShould I put anything in the planting hole?
Bone meal, mycorrhizal fungi, compost and fertiliser assessed one at a time — and why a hole full of lovely compost in heavy soil is one of the commonest ways to kill a new shrub.
beginner20 min5 min readWhat does soil pH actually do to my plants?
pH does not feed a plant — it decides whether the food already in the soil can be reached. Which is why the fix for yellow leaves on chalk is not more fertiliser.
intermediate15 min3 min readDo coffee grounds, eggshells and banana skins actually do anything for the garden?
Six kitchen-waste garden remedies assessed honestly — what each one genuinely contributes, which claims are wrong, and where they all belong instead.
beginner15 min5 min read