carol on soil

Carol Klein delves

into the secret life
of soil and reveals
how the magic
below ground helps
our plants thrive

S oil is something most of us

gardeners take for granted,
often treating it as an inanimate
mass, conveniently laid down for us to use.
But it is a living thing – there are more
organisms in a handful of soil than there
are people on the planet. Without soil, there
would be no gardening and no plants. Soil
constituents are linked together, and to
growing plants, by billions of intricate
relationships. It’s no coincidence that the
planet and the soil share a title: earth.
The more we dig, the more we compact
our soil, and the more chemicals we add,
the more harm we do to all the creatures
within it and to the way in which they work
together. Not only does digging cut through
plant roots, but it also destroys organisms,
fungi and bacteria, whose action increases
fertility and helps plants to feed. Chemical
fertilisers also disrupt the beneficial
relationships between these fungi and

Nurturing
our plants, leaving our plants less resilient
and less able to find nutrients if we stop
providing the artificial fertilisers.
Rainfall, exposure to sun and wind, and
the length of growing season are important
in deciding the plants that will thrive in

mother
our garden. But the most basic factor in
determining how gardens grow is soil.
Understanding soil is vital for successful
growing. Good gardeners know their soil
intimately and grasp intuitively its qualities
and its shortcomings. As gardeners, we need

earth
to have a comprehensive picture of our soil’s
ability to retain water and nutrients, of its
drainage capacity and its stability. There
are four basic clues that will help us
understand these: acidity/alkalinity,
texture, colour and organic content.

Fertility matters
The better we understand our soil, the
more effective we can be in helping its
fertility. Soil acidity affects the state of
plant nutrients and other materials in the
soil, and influences how easy or difficult
PHOTO: JASON INGRAM

it is for them to move. On a practical level,

it is important when deciding what to
grow, since some plants cannot tolerate
highly alkaline soils and plant growth
is inhibited in very acid soils. Acidity/

December 2020 gardenersworld.com 33