Gardens which are left bare over the coming seasons can be tough on soils that become cold and saturated during Autumn and Winter. This makes the soil sour and you can lose essential bacteria. Add to that slow draining soil and you may find that it becomes very hard to cultivate, meaning a poor start to the next growing season and soil that may never reach its full potential.
So, what can be done about that? Easy – sweeten your soil using calcium to unlock essential elements in the soil which plants can absorb. Autumn is a perfect time to do so, and it is easy and cheap.
Calcium can be found in lime, limestone and dolomite and it is lime that is needed for the sweetening, so apply now to the surface of the soil in most parts of the garden. Only certain ornamentals dislike lime, so plants like rhododendrons, azaleas, ericas, camellias and most Australian natives should not be limed.
Rather focus on your vegetable beds and fruit trees, especially stone fruits
Now the real question is how much? – to apply, not to pay! And the answer to that is it depends – very helpful. The type of calcium used, and the acidity of your soil are the main factors. You can use a kit to determine this or just look at what weeds are growing. For example, if you have a lot of sorrel, you probably have acidic soil, as sorrel loves it. Or do what I do, don’t worry too much and just look after the soil all year, adding and applying straw, compost and manures, potting mix, mulch and of course water. Use that as the base and just feed extra, such as lime at times like now.
Dolomite, a form of limestone, also contains magnesium and is the most valuable way to address acidity in the soil. It is also safe to use with fertilizers and will remain in the soil longer, but you need to use almost twice as much as you would with lime. As a guide, in new bed or ones that have not been treated for a while, two good handfuls of dolomite every sqm should be enough. And don’t worry, if you overdo it, not much damage will be done.
Crushed limestone is another option and is pretty much the same as dolomite, except it does not contain much magnesium. Otherwise, it acts very much the same and will work over several years. It is also the cheapest way to apply calcium to the soil.
Lime is the most active and starts working immediately. It is great to apply now to onion beds being sowed in July, and peas and broad beans going in now.
However, remember that the overuse of lime will break down organic matter and use up fertilizers, so as mentioned above, don’t forget to layer up the soil with all the goodies as you harvest the crop and expose the soil.
Wondering what to do over Easter. Well, this is a good, quick and easy job to make you feel as if you have got things on track for what is to come.
Finally, the greenhouse film promotion (2 x 3 metres of greenhouse film with clamps worth $54.95, free to customers with any order from the website over $100), has been very well subscribed to and I will leave that running until after Easter. All you need to do is
- add the items you want to the cart to a value that is $100 or more,
- then add the greenhouse film to the order (Greenhouse / Hothouse film and clamps - Flexi Garden Frames),
- use the code FGHF326 at checkout and the price of the greenhouse film will be removed.
Enjoy the long weekend – I am certainly planning to
Peter