I once had an allotment that was such heavy clay it would feel like I was walking through treacle on a wet day. My kids would enjoy rolling it into balls and making little cups and bowls out of it. Then, in the summer it would dry and crack like a photograph from a climate change documentary. A few years later I find myself working soil that some people would more readily associate with a kid’s sandpit than a flower bed. In fact, if I dig down more than a few inches the sand is yellow and soft like builder’s sand.
It would be tempting to think that these two soils need different things to correct them. But these two types of soil have one very important similarity. They are both lacking aggregation.
AGGREGATION
Put simply, aggregation is the process by which tiny particles in the soil are stuck together. It makes sense that you might want this on sandy soil. If you try to dig it on a particularly windy day you risk losing half of it into the nearest hedgerow. So having it stuck together a little sounds like a good plan.
This story is from the April 2022 edition of Kitchen Garden.
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This story is from the April 2022 edition of Kitchen Garden.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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