Do you know your soil type?

Yep! Bog Cotton had a very good year here last year, even DEFRA were raving about it in their marquee at the annual agricultural show. I saw loads of it up in the hills.

http://www.manxwt.org.uk/species/round-leaved-sundew

 

There you go, answer to the loo paper crisis

You can also weave baskets out of it

 

There's a drawback to that though, I'd have to walk miles of rough terrain to get to it and probably in foul weather. I'll take my chances on the boat coming in I think.

 

I haven't tried it yet but thanks for the site link. I'm gonna check it out.

 

For anyone in Scotland, I have found a similar soil map for us

http://www.soils-scotland.gov.uk/data/soil-survey

Soil where I live - Map unit information -
Soil group - brown soils.
Soil subgroup - brown earths.
Parent material - fluvioglacial sands and gravels derived from carboniferous rocks.
Component soils - Brown earths with mineral alluvial soils with peaty alluvial soils.
Land form - Mounds and terraces with gentle and strong slopes.
If you click on the soil series tab, it shows you a table of the soil minerals, soil ph and other information relating to the soil type.

 

Oops ! Didn't realise I posted twice. Isn't there a delete post function ?

 

I have found another source of information relating to soil in all of the UK.
This one is the UK Soil Observatory and has maps showing soil types which you can enter your postcode to zoom right in to where you live

Where I live, the map for soil texture is sandy loam. The mean ph for my area is 6.22, so slightly acidic.
This link takes you to the "maps" page, where there are clickable links for data galleries for soils in Scotland, England and Wales, Northern Ireland, etc. Enjoy

http://www.ukso.org/maps.html

 

Interestingly, the soil ph in my back garden is neutral to slightly alkaline (dark green result after testing ph), but my front garden is slightly acidic (pale yellow result after ph testing). Ph testing done with a TestWest soil testing kit. The soil in both my front and back gardens is freely draining sandy loam.

 

darn no northern ireland :(

 

The house I'm in was built in the 1930s. I've never came across any builder's rubble while digging in the back garden so either it's buried very deeply or my grandparents did a lot to improve the ground. There's at least 2 feet in depth of good topsoil, because the guys who put my fence up didn't come across any rubble either when they were digging out holes for the posts (8ft posts, 2ft deep post holes).
It has to have been a very long time since anything was grown in the back garden. We came here every weekend and during school holidays back in the 70s and 80s, but it was always just grass.
So that's about 40+ years (I'm 49), if not longer. since the ground was even dug over. I think it would have been used more as a drying green for hanging out washing rather than being used as a garden. I don't even remember my Mum mentioning my grandparents growing their own veg.
Before these houses were built, the land was a cow field.

 

Snap! Hence the username! All my stuff at home is in pots / containers of some description, growing medium is all homemade and some shop bought compost. I have dreams of our decking breaking so I can rip it all up and start again, this time with soil on the floor.

 

Good deep sandy loam around 7 on the PH scale here.
Front garden is very draining; back garden has better soil and holds moisture pretty well because of the huge amounts of compost and manure added over the years. Warm, sunny walled garden not far from the coast. Can grow wide range of plants from tender perennials to hostas