Preparing a flower bed

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Peckham

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At the weekend I dug two beds in the garden - one small one for herbs and one larger one for flowers/shrubbery etc. I'm new to all this, and really taking a step into the unknown, so wanted to get some advice so I can set a good foundation.

I removed the top two inches or so of grass and dumped this part, I then dug down about 8 or 10 inches and turned over all the soil, breaking up the large clumps and removing all sizeable stones.

Next weekend I'm planning getting a soil test kit and then introducing some compost (or similar from the local garden centre) and then planting. (All over the course of the long weekend)

Any recommendations on other steps I should take? How do I know whether I need to introduce sand or improve drainage?

Also, the soil in one of the beds is clumped together quite a lot. I broke it up as much as possible but there are plenty of golf/tennis ball sized clumps left in it. Is there any argument to removing all this soil and replacing with better looking (better quality?) soil. Even for the first few inches? It looks quite ugly at the moment!

Thanks
 
Take a handful of the soil in your hand. Does it feel smooth and sticky? Can you roll it into a ball? Or does it feel gritty/sandy? Before you dug the beds, did rainwater soak in alright or did you have pools of surface water? Just by doing this test you'll be able to get a good idea as to whether your soil is clay or sandy (clay soil would feel cold, sticky and smooth, and would have poor drainage. Sandy soil would feel warmer, with a distinctly 'gritty' feel and very fast drainage).

Most likely it's a mix of the two, called loam. This is ideal because it has good water retention properties thanks to the presence of clay, but also good drainage thanks to the presence of sandy soil. Assuming you don't have clay, you won't need to add any grit etc. to improve the drainage.

Re the golf-ball sized lumps, you can get rid of these when the soil is relatively dry by whacking the surface of the bed with the back of a garden fork. Then, when the clumps are smaller, you can make them even finer by raking repeatedly with a rake. This will break up any of the larger bits into smaller particles, also called a fine tilth, which is what you'd want if you were to sow seeds directly into the soil. If you're just planting ready-grown plants into it, you don't need to break the lumps down - the weather and worms will do that for you over the course of the year anyway.

Try to add non-peat compost to the soil - most garden centres now sell non-peat stuff. Any organic matter you add will act as a soil conditioner, i.e. will improve the quality of the soil by making it more free-draining while simultaneously improving its water retention - even bark chippings put on the top of the soil around your plants will eventually be broken down by insects etc and will improve the quality of your soil. However, the compost you buy in the garden centre will not really boost the fertility of your soil - you should add some fertiliser, preferably something like pelleted chicken manure - but go easy whatever fertiliser you use, if anything use less than is recommended on the packet rather than too much. If you can find it, something like rotted horse manure will both improve the soil structure and add nutrients at the same time. Don't use any fertiliser for the herb bed, and try and put the herb bed in a sunny position.

Happy gardening!
 
Our local recycling centre (in the English midlands) takes in green waste as well as all the other stuff. They then sell back to the clientele the compost produced from all this green waste at about £3 for a bag. Do any of your recycling centres do similar?
 
What herbs are you planning on growing? A lot of them like free draining soil, and you'd want to add a load of sand or grit to the bed. The more you work your soil over the years and add improvers to it, the better it will become. We started with compacted clay subsoil, and have managed to get reasonable soil in our flower beds.
 
Thanks, some great advice there. Drainage isn't particularly great in the garden, so I think I will need to add some sand. Will also pick up some compost and fertiliser from the garden centre at the weekend.

Should I plant straight away after adding these improvements or leave it a few weeks? I'll be planting plants rather than seeds.

As for the herbs, they'll be the standard kitchen herbs - parsley, chives, mint (which I'll keep separate) etc. Thinking of a rosemary bush too.
 
Peckham said:
Thanks, some great advice there. Drainage isn't particularly great in the garden, so I think I will need to add some sand. Will also pick up some compost and fertiliser from the garden centre at the weekend.

Should I plant straight away after adding these improvements or leave it a few weeks? I'll be planting plants rather than seeds.

As for the herbs, they'll be the standard kitchen herbs - parsley, chives, mint (which I'll keep separate) etc. Thinking of a rosemary bush too.
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Unless your drainage is really appalling you won't need to add anything - regular cultivation and addition of compost, manure etc. will improve the drainage gradually anyway. However, if you think it necessary, ask in the garden centre for horticultural grit rather than sand - certain types of sand can actually worsen the drainage - you want large, gritty particles to open up the drainage.

You can plant straight away provided you don't allow the roots of the plants to sit directly on the fertiliser, so mix the fertiliser into the soil rather than putting it in a pile under each plant - and do avoid the temptation to put on more fertiliser than recommended on the packet!
 
The best time to prepare flower beds is actually winter, especially if you have heavy clay soil. The water freezing in the clay helps break up the lumps. The downside is that to really get the benefit of this, you leave them unplanted, and look at a bare patch of earth all winter (Assuming the weeds don't take over).
 
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