Soil that is luscious, deep brown, crumbly, bursting with all the nutrients necessary for healthy growth such soil is a gardener’s dream. But very few gardeners are blessed with soil of this glorious kind and, surprisingly, it appears that not many of us have the necessary patience to make it either.

Yet without good soil — soil that provides every single thing a plant needs to grow and produce to its full potential — gardening can be a thankless task.

It is a complete waste of time, energy, seeds, bought seedlings and plants, to even attempt to make a productive garden without first paying maximum attention to soil conditions. Simply mixing in a few shovelfuls or sacks of often questionable manure is not enough and scattering bags full of chemical fertiliser does, in the long term, more harm than good.

Soil is a complex ‘structure’ which, far from being ‘dead’ is actually brimful of microscopic life forms in the shape of millions of micro-organisms, invisible to the naked eye, rotted down and broken up particles of insects and plants which act as food for living insects and plants. It also contains a localised mixture of minerals from completely weathered down rock particles along with various gases and water. All of these aforementioned soil ingredients perpetually interact with each other in a delicate, natural balance — a balance that is so easily knocked ‘off-kilter’ by chemical interventions of any kind.

Without good soil, gardening can be a thankless task. Enriched soil contains all of the nutrients a seed/seedling requires to get a good start in life

Good soil is a living, breathing entity and needs being treated as such.

All soil types, be they heavy on sand or clay or whatever, can, in time and with patience, be brought up to the kind of high standard which nourishes plants in the way that nature intended them to be nourished and the rewards of this are manifold.

Soil has a number of different levels, each level having different properties. Basically, to keep it simple and easy to understand, the visible soil surface and four into four inches below this, is what is generally known as ‘topsoil’. This is high in organic material, and provides home and food for beneficial, hard-working creatures and insects, such as earthworms and beetles. Good soil contains all of the nutrients a seed/seedling requires to get a healthy start in life. Shallow rooted plants — that is most annual flowers, annual vegetables and annual herbs — thrive in good quality topsoil, as long as the area is not prone to waterlogging.

Good topsoil, rich in organic material, naturally holds a reasonable amount of water, staying moist below the surface for a surprising length of time. If, however, the location is prone to waterlogging, during the summer monsoon for example, then some form of drainage must be created to take away excess water before it leaches much of the goodness from the soil and before the overly wet soil suffocates plant roots by excluding necessary oxygen.

Below this topsoil is a subsoil stratum or layer, its depth varying from just a few inches to a few feet, depending on localised geological conditions. Subsoil is usually mineral rich; these minerals are accessed by deep-rooted plants, shrubs and trees that have the root strength to penetrate its usually dense mass. Subsoil alone is not a suitable growing medium for most plants, topsoil is what is needed.

Below the subsoil is bedrock which, as the name implies, is not soil at all.

Having looked at what soil is, let’s take a look at how to make high grade topsoil of your own.

Home composting and regular mulching are the keys to creating and maintaining your soil on a year-round basis.

Composting can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be, but let’s look at the simple option here.

Compost can be made in a bin, a heap or a pit but the latter is problematic in our climate as vermin, such as snakes, adore compost pits and it is next to impossible to get them out.

The easiest is to make a number of compost heaps, the number depending on the size of your garden. The base should consist of a layer of twiggy material to aide drainage, top this with a layer of green (for example grass clippings), vegetable/fruit waste, freshly pulled weeds (preferably before they have reached the seeding stage), followed by a layer of brown (like fallen leaves), shredded cardboard, sawdust (bhoosa) and continue in layers until the heap is of a ‘reasonable’ size — not small but not towering so high that it dominates the garden or becomes an eyesore. Keep it watered, mix it up using a long handled and full-sized garden fork every couple of weeks to speed up the composting process. Or do as I do and simply leave it be until it looks ready and then break it open, rake out the ready to use compost — this is dark brown, rich, crumbly soil. You can, later on, use what remains of twigs and other lumps/bits, as the base of a new compost heap. Composting time varies tremendously depending on the weather and materials used and it is best to allow a minimum of six months to a maximum of one year for a compost heap to ‘make.’

We will debate more composting ideas, composting facts and fantasies, along with mulching, in a couple of weeks’ time.

Meanwhile — happy soil-making!

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer does not respond directly by email. Emails with attachments will not be opened.

Published in Dawn, EOS, December 15th, 2019