How to prepare a herbaceous / mixed border in Spring.

Now, many of you will think that this is an odd time to be talking about Spring border preparation and to a certain extent it is. I've had a question from Chris about how I go about border preparation though and it's always good to be planning ahead and thinking about what changes you'll need to be making next year.In a way, some of the things that you notice now will dictate what you will do next Spring so it might be useful to take a notebook with you when you're going round the garden. Takes some notes and look around at what is overgrown, what's not performing well and what plants you will be thinking about repositioning next Spring. Seeing borders in full growth always gives you the opportunity to make a few notes about what you want to do to improve the overall appearance of the border when the time is right.I know there are a few variations on what to do when, so I'll put this caveat in here: this is just the way that I do things, it's not meant to be a gospel on how to prepare a border and you can adapt it to the way you want or work. I'll try to expalin why I do things in my particular little way but do please feel free to ask questions and i'd be more than happy to hear some views on how to do things differently.So, Spring preparation is part of the annual programme of border maintenance and management. I usually start as early in the year as I can which tends to be about mid February. At this time of year there is still a risk of snow but, even in Halifax, this doesn't tend to last very long - I think we had a total of about 6 days of snow in total this winter. The most important thing for me is to get the soil conditions improved. That means working in lots of organic matter and fertiliser to open up the structure of the soil, improve its fertility and help retain moisture / avoid waterlogging.Why dig in soil improver, I guess you might ask. Well, in my experience, most mature gardens will not have had much attantion paid to the soil for some years. In some cases this can go back almost to the point at which the garden was created (certainly in many houses built in the 80s and 90s). If you get the soil right, you can do so much more with your garden and find much more inspiring plants. Over the years plants will drain the soil of nutrients, depleting it of the vital ingredients for good flora to thrive. The soil gradually gets compacted which leaves the roots of new plants struggling to get anywhere at all.I should say at this point that most of my gardens tend to have quite thick clay or silty soil. It's not as thick as some very heavy clay soils (my Dad's garden in Stoke-on-Trent has soil that you could make pots from!). I've not had the experience in working in very sandy soils, so I'll not comment on what to do with those. Perhaps someone else would like to comment on that one? This preparation regime is just for clay or silty soils then.In previous years I have used farmyard manure from the local garden centre but this year I have been a little bit lazy and just worked with multi-purpose compost. I've not noticed much of a difference and, if anything, the compost is more economical and creates a better quality of soil in meduim clay and silt. I have used B&Q organic soil improver in the past which does work reasonably well. It has the consistency of a reasonably good leafmould and works into the soil quite well. One of my local turf suppliers also make a wide variety of soil conditioners but I have found them to be a little too thick & claggy and less economical. If you have quite an alkaline soil, you can always consider using spent mushroom compost.There are a few ways to get your chosen soil improver into the soil; mulching, lightly working into the top layer or properly working it in to a fork's depth. The benefits of really working the soil down to a full forks depth really do show later in the season though. If you're working in Spring, you can take the opportunity to lift & divide some of your overgrown clumps of perennials as well. Essentially this just involves lifting the clumps with a fork, splitting the clumps and then replanting. While the plants are out of the ground you have to chance to condition the soil and add fertiliser, ready for replanting. If your plants don't need to be split, just work in some fertiliser around the crown of the plants (I have been using Poultry Pellets in most of my gardens for a couple of years). Do the same with shrubs and roses - you wouldn't want to lift them out of the soil but a generous dose of fertiliser will see them perform well in the coming season.One of the 'hidden' benefits of improving the soil in your borders is that you will begin to get a feel for the health of the garden. You'll be able to see if the soil has any pests or grubs hiding in it, waiting to attack your plants later in the year. If you get the soil right before things get into growth, you'll be ahead in creating a beautiful garden.

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Comments

Nick Steele June 26, 2008 at 6:54pm

The soil round here is phenominally sandy - 12 inches down its golden builders sand - but our soil improvement regime is pretty much the same - dig in or mulch with whatever organic matter you can get your hands on. Magical stuff organic matter - binds sandy soil, and breaks up clay soil, truly a panacea material.
Andrew Fereday June 26, 2008 at 9:48pm

I know that organic matter is recommended for pretty much all soils but I suppose that some of the heavier organic matter works better in sandy soils than in clays - the stuff that I mentioned from one of my local farms (they call it Mucker's Mulch) is quite thick. Although it does help on silt, some of the lighter soil improvers tend to be easier to work into the soil.
chris June 26, 2008 at 10:01pm

Brilliant advice thanks Andy will be definetly asking my customers to go down this route
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Phil Voice June 26, 2008 at 10:09pm

Organic matter does help clay soils enormously and I would recommend adding some kind of grit or sand as well to break up the tight pore spaces - How to improve heavy clay soils