[cleverkitty]

Hi all

I used to help my dad with the garden when i was little but haven't done much myself....

I have a large garden which was all grass/weeds, i've decided to put in borders ready for the spring and discovered the soil is like clay and been told its very acidic. Any advice on what to do to make the soil ok for planting or what to plant in this type of soil???

I had also considered a vegetable patch in the garden, but will having acidic soil make life difficult??

Many Thanks in anticipation

[muntjac]

break the soil up add garden/slaked lime at the rate of 2 oz to the sq yard add manure. dont plant spuds next year .

[cleverkitty]

Thanks for that muntjac... can i plant any other root veg??  what about plants/ flowers??

[jack russell]

Hey cleverkitty i have some spare lime you could have   just have to pm me  

[johnhar]

Hi Cleverkitty.
Before you do anything please do a soil test to see if the soil is acidic, the ideal is Ph6 to 6.5 for most veg & flowers. The danger is that if you make it alkaline by adding lime to the soil it is very difficult to get it back to being slightly acid. You can get a test kit at the garden centre or a meter type that that you can use as required, i prefer the test tube type of kit as it gives a more accurate reading. A good indicator if you have acid soil is tha it grows dense moss on the surface.

[mrs bouquet]

Hi Cleverkitty.
Before you do anything please do a soil test to see if the soil is acidic, the ideal is Ph6 to 6.5 for most veg & flowers. The danger is that if you make it alkaline by adding lime to the soil it is very difficult to get it back to being slightly acid. You can get a test kit at the garden centre or a meter type that that you can use as required, i prefer the test tube type of kit as it gives a more accurate reading. A good indicator if you have acid soil is tha it grows dense moss on the surface.

Johnjar is quite right, and you should do your soil test going down at least
10 to 12 inches.  The reason for this is that any additives to the top will change what is actually your true soil base The best way to do this is to get a large corkscrew type drill and put it well down into your ground and do tests at 3 different levels.  That will tell you what your soil really is, and thats where your plant roots go !!!  Mrs Bouquet