Soil, soil, soil!

After a couple of years of pathetic growing and seeing the bare patches start to appear in the borders I've decided that my leached out sandy soil just isn't cutting it. It always dry, growth is slow and the plants never seem to look their best. It's time for soil improvement!

I've been digging much deeper borders (more plants, yay!) and while digging them over adding huge amounts of compost and soon [hopefully] barrow loads of rotted manure. I also found out that the earth is so compacted about a spit down that roots would have a hard time of it so probably another reason for bad growth. As I go I'm moving plants about too so getting the garden much closer to how I want it All I need to do now is get the extra plants for the extra space. I've removed a couple of small conifers too as they were drying it all out even more; next year I'm hoping for 'lush' not dusty...

Time will tell...

 

Fidgetsmum; your manure will have helped to improve your soil, unfortunately you still have to keep topping up every so often. Manure is organic matter which decomposes over time and plants use it up, its can take a few years to get a nice loamy soil when starting from something poor like sandy soil. It is expensive and hard work buying in a lorry load, and whilst its worthwhile getting you off to a flying start, in the long run you need to make your own compost. Build a bin out of old pallets or get one or more of those black dalek type bins, your local council may provide them free or very cheap:
http://www.recyclenow.com/home%5Fcomposting/buy%5Fa%5Fbin/

Put in all your grass clippings and old/dead plants - and mix in with a layer of cardboard every few inches. It is a long term thing, so it may take a year or so before you are making enough. If you only have a small garden it is difficult to make enough so you may have to buy some in.

Forgive me if you are already doing this, but you did ask.