The soil you start with makes a difference to the crops you will grow most successfully, and to your work load through the year.   How do you know what you've got?   You could get a soil analysis done - but there are a couple of easy ways to get a good idea using your hand and eye.

Feeling the Soil

Take a handful of it and try to press it into a ball.

• If the ball simply fall apart in your hand, you have a light sandy soil, which will drain fast - and needs organic matter to help the soil hold water and nutrients better;
• if the ball holds its shape and sticks together, you have a heavy clay-type soil, which will not drain easily - and needs organic matter to increase the air in the soil and help drainage;
• a good soil is somewhere in between these two, with a good balance between sand (helping drainage), and clay (holding nutrients in the soil).

Use your Eyes

Look at the dominant weeds.   Just as vegetables and garden plants have their preferences, so do wild flowers and weeds.   Don't jump too fast to conclusions though - make a judgement on the overall balance of weeds, not the odd single specimen.

Our plot has Creeping Buttercup, Dandelions and Dock, suggesting a heavy clay soil; Couch Grass, which favour a light sandy soil; and Nettles which like a fertile soil.   A good combination!   And not a bad analysis of the lovely silty soil we have on the site.

Click here for more on weeds as indicators of soil type, from The Horticultural Note-Book