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as well do a bit of forward planning of my crop rotations and get the relevant beds prepared.I'm really lucky with my soil - it's a rich brown loam, well-manured in decades past, with a tendency towards the stickiness of clay when wet. It's also a bit

I'm as keen on improving my soil with manure as any other allotmenteer. I love it all - chicken, cow and best of all, horse manure. A good dollop of well-rotted manure does wonders for your soil, enriching it with nitrogen, phosphates and potassium

I love mulching, and my soil loves it too. Not that I'd admit this in public, but I think it's partly the lazy gardener in me that chooses mulching over digging - it's a far easier way to incorporate bulky organic material into soil.Yes, there's a

manures, sown onto beds and borders and forming a green carpet that can be dug directly into the soil, improving its organic content. Where areas aren't required for crops or bedding for a couple of months I put the area to good use by sowing green manures

organic matter added to them. The richness of manured soil causes the roots to fork, becoming terrifically deformed and a nightmare to prepare for the pot. But they are really good for the kids' 'make an animal from a vegetable' competitions.My root beds

and fruit to place a 5cm - 10cm layer of straw on the surface of the soil.Placing a length of seep hose under the straw allows you to connect it to a hosepipe which will stop soil splash during watering.If you are allergic to straw or find it difficult

family home in Surrey had a massive, spreading clump of them outside the front door, where they flowered through late-summer and into autumn. They flourished despite the challenges of the site, with its very heavy but dry clay soil along the wall

to be scattered onto the surrounding soil when the pods eventually ripen and split.There isn't much bare soil around my hellebores, but somehow a rash of seedlings always develops. I can then delve in with a trowel and transplant them to fill gaps around

soggy mess.One advantage of the rainfall has been the success of the biological control I applied to some areas of my kitchen garden. Nematodes are added to water and applied to the soil in spring. They thrive in warm, moist soil and when they come

.It's never been a posh lawn, but when we put the shed up we turned it into a disaster zone. Even well-maintained lawns could do with a bit of autumn lawn care. Top-dressing with soil is a great way to straighten out uneven lawn surfaces, and in our case we