Compacted soil in your garden makes it harder for plants to grow
and certainly for water to get down to root level
and that's a real problem
if you're wanting healthy plants and lots of fruit and vegetables.
So what is compaction?
well,
ideally soil has air pockets to allow moisture, worms, roots and microbes to pass through.
When soil gets compacted
these air pockets gets squeezed out and it's harder for plants to grow and for water and
nutrients to reach the plants roots.
Instead, water can pool on the surface and plants can literally suffocate.
What causes compaction? Well heavy machinery certainly does... even cars parked on lawns,
foot traffic, kids playing football
even overdigging especially when the soils are wet and clay soils are prone to compaction.
A simple test is to use a screwdriver or something simple
dig it into the ground and press it as far as you can
and that is how deep I got it - that is compaction.
Dig a hole about 30 centimeters deep to get a truer picture and what's underneath the loose topsoil
In this bed, it doesn't take very long to reach the compacted soil layer
That is so dense that it comes up in big clods and the roots can't even grow into it.
To fix the problem try to avoid it in the first place of course!
Don't drive your cars onto the lawns and with your veggie gardens
don't make them too wide
if you make it from the edge of the veggie garden so that the arm can reach out right into the middle and do your
work like that without stepping on it.
If you do have to step on a veggie garden use bricks or timber plank
so that you're minimizing compaction.
If your soil is compacted what can you do about it? Well, fortunately there's plenty of things.
You can try a soil aerator. This is a wonderful tool
that you can just use like so, just...
jiggle it into the soil that's compacted as best you can
and pull it out so that those drill holes
will allow water and air and any topdressing to dribble through.
That's a great little thing... or if you don't want to get one of those sort of tools,
use a garden fork.
They're always really good to get in and put some aeration into the compacted soil.
Preferably don't use it when the soil is waterlogged or too dry
And secondly, there's gypsum.
and if you scatter this at two handfuls per square meter
and water or work it in
it'll work like magic on compacted soil.
How it works is that it binds the small clay particles together
to form one larger particle
and that means that there's more air space around that particle and around the soil in general
It's great for air and drainage
The chemical reaction will eventually wear off
so long-term you'll need to get
organic material into the soil for a more permanent solution.
Thirdly, for compacted lawns
Well, you must get some aeration into the lawn and into the holes
you can add some more gypsum and some organic matter at the same time.
In this case it's wood shavings and cow manure
and that'll just seep into the holes
especially if you water it in...
make sure you don't cover all the green bits and smother it but
that will really get the
microbial action happening.
Number 4, garden beds.
It's better not to dig them over.
In the olden days we were taught to double dig
...dig down two spades deep.
You don't do that anymore.
It's better to work on the top using organic matter and let nature do its work.
Pile anything you can lay your hands on
like wood chips, shredded paper, straw, chopped leaves, lawn clippings
in layers on the bed.
Make it at least 15 centimetres deep and then leave it for about a year.
For a slightly quicker result,
you can forget about the wood chips because they're so lumpy and large that they do take a while to break down.
So use things like compost, your worm castings or some organic sort of manures.
You'll find that they'll break down.
Scatter them, put a little bit of straw over the top if you want and then water them in and they really will start to
work immediately.
Soil compaction doesn't have to mean a death sentence for your garden
So get out, get into it, get the soil healthy and growing again.