What makes a good garden?

It starts with soil. Not leaf blowing, not weeding, not mowing the lawn. It’s the soil which supports the life in your garden and a good gardener knows how to grow good soil.

Have you ever started a garden and everything grows well? Like, for example, turning over the soil and getting a good crop of potatoes. Or planting a new rose which grows like billy-o. The next year not so much vigour which continues to drop off year on year. That is probably because most soils do support vigorous growth in a first year but that soil needs to be fed to get longer-term performance. As nutrients are depleted they need to be replaced.

How do you do that? I’m an organic gardener and not massively into applications of specific minerals and what-have-you to correct deficiencies because I think its too easy to get things wrong.

Compost is my friend. Loads of it with mulch and blood & bone and sheep manure and the odd root feed with seaweed to stimulate the soil biology. I trust that a good compost allows plants to take what they need and sort themselves out. Build that soil and watch your garden thrive.

That’s what I'm doing out there in gardens when I am not weeding, trimming, pruning, leaf blowing. I’m growing soil for my clients.

Note there are caveats to the above. For a start its pretty simplistic. You can get it wrong with fertlity management. For example, many native plants don’t like too much fertility as do wildflowers. Some soils are so rich they can support growth for many years. Timing is critical e.g. mulching at the right depth at the right time to retain water but not allow the soil to become too wet.

However growing the soil is a basic. Beyond the basics it’s all in the knowledge and art of the gardener.