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Brown Thumb Syndrome
The most common cause for the "brown thumb syndrome", is poor soil for the plants. With these helpful hints, you too can turn your thumb into green.
Gardens are usually a harmonious mixture of plants, used to create color and interest throughout the year. What influences whether you will have success or not, will be the soil, and location for the plants. Good soil is vital for healthy growth. If it contains too much clay or sand, or is overly acid or alkaline, plants will not grow properly. Most soils contain balanced amounts of clay, silt and sand, as well as organic materials such as decomposed vegetation. Clay soils are difficult to work, retaining masses of water in winter yet becoming bone-dry and hard during summer. Clay soils are less likely than sandy ones to be short of nutrients. Clay soils can be improved, but it takes several years. Here are a few ways to improve clay soils: .Dig in large amounts of bulky organic material, such as manure, compost, peat or spent mushroom compost. Calcium compounds help to make small clay particles cling together and form small lumps, thereby improving aeration and drainage. Liming is the easiest way to add calcium, but do not do this if the soil is already alkaline. To improve a small area quickly, add sand and gravel to physically open up the soil. However, at least 10% of the area needs to be sand or gravel to noticeably improve the soil. Sandy soils are much easier to work than clay types, but they have drawbacks and, unless plants are chosen carefully, gardening in dry, sandy soil can be a real struggle. A light, gravelly or sandy soil lacks necessary nutrients, unless constantly replenished. As well as being short of nutrients, sandy soils lack water for long periods during summer. The optimum drainage created by large soil particles is useful for plants adapted to these conditions, but for the majority the lack of moisture can be a disaster. These are some ways to improve sandy soils:
Dig in as much bulky organic material -compost, farmyard manure, peat or spent hops -as you can. This is a regular task, as these materials soon decay in well-aerated soils.
Install a hose sprinkler system for important areas, such as summer flowerbeds.
Mulch plants regularly. This involves forming a 5- 7 .5cm (2-3in) thick layer of well-decayed compost or peat around plants.
Apply a general fertilizer to flowers each spring.
When planting, add compost or peat to the soil, and a sprinkling of bone meal. Alkaline soils contain a high proportion of chalk. Although many plants grow well in these soils, if you wish to plant azaleas (rhododendron) there will be problems. Acid-loving garden plants in chalky soils develop restricted growth and sickly-looking yellowish foliage. Alkalinity is at the opposite end of the scale from acidity, and in the garden these can be measured on a pH scale, from 0 to 14. The lower the reading the higher the acidity, and the higher the reading the greater the alkalinity. A reading of 7.0 is chemically neutral, but most plants happily grow in 6.5, which is slightly acid. The scale is logarithmic, and therefore potentially misleading. A difference of 1.0 on the scale represents a soil ten times more acid or alkaline. Simple but effective pH soil-testing kits are available from gardening shops and nurseries. Follow these tips to improve chalky soil: Dig in plenty of organic material, especially compost, farmyard manure and peat. If the soil is very alkaline, avoid adding spent mushroom compost as this usually contains limestone and may make the problem worse. Apply a mulch, especially peat and pulverized bark, around plants. Water the soil first. Apply a general fertilizer in spring. Use acidic fertilizers such as a sulphate of ammonia if a nitrogenous fertilizer is needed. Avoid the use of ammonium nitrate and chalk mixtures as these make soil more alkaline. Two minor elements not always present in general fertilizers and often deficient in alkaline soils are magnesium and iron. If necessary, apply these separately. Acid soils are at the other end of the pH scale from those which are alkaline. Although many gardeners equate acid soils with peaty types, there are also acid clays and acid sandy types. If your soil has a pH reading of less than 6.5, it is acid. Soils that are lower than pH 6.0 may suffer from a deficiency of phosphate but many evergreens and woodland plants will still do well. As long as the pH reading is not too low, it is easy to correct the acidity.
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