Soil Improvement

When we first saw the garden in February 2022, the soil was bare, chalky-grey, and powdery soft. In parts of the garden I sank in to my ankles. You could have dug it with a table spoon and yet, about 30 cm down, you needed a pickaxe to make any kind of a hole.

In June, when we moved in and began to gain practical experience with the garden, it became clear that the soil was completely worn out and impoverished. There was nothing living in it and it was hard to have any plants really thrive in it.

I read up a lot on soil improvement and began by covering up the earth in the winter of 2022/2023, using cardboard, kitchen scraps, shredding waste from the big clearing up of all the old overgrowth, wood chips, horse manure, etc.

In the summer of 2023 I mulched the vegetable garden with hay and straw and the ornamental garden with dozens of bags of wood and bark chips as well as all shredding waste from the pruning of trees and shrubs.

In the winter of 2023/2024 we changed the entire garden layout. After planting trees and shrubs we covered the soil with wood and bark chips again.

In the summer of 2024 I mulched the new raised vegetable beds thickly with Miscanthus straw and shaded the beds during the hottest months with homemade canopies of white winter fleece. The ornamental garden got more wood chips and shreds whenever we did some pruning.

In the winter 2024/2025 I applied another layer of ripe, old horse manure. It will be the last application of manure since I don’t want the soil to get too “rich” for all the dry-garden plants growing in it. I also got a lot of shredded wood from a neighbor and from a gardener who was felling a large pine tree in the village.

In the spring of 2025 the first compost will be ready and be put in the vegetable beds to be covered with straw again.

Results so far

Three years later the soil is much darker than before. It is a great mix of organic materials and able to hold moisture better than before. And it is alive now, there are mushrooms growing in it, there are even earthworms. And the violets in that shady corner are finally really thriving.

Tips for improving soil

Mulch & Feed

• Get a shredder and feed it all the branches, twigs and thick stems you get from pruning and cutting. You may have to let them dry a bit first.
• Wood chips and pine needles: Watch out for wood or bark chip sales at Lidl and get as many bags as you can. If you have pine trees, use the needles for mulch.
  I keep reading and hearing in gardening circles that bark chips or pine needles will turn the soil acidic. First of all, it would need a whole lot of that stuff over a long period of time to really turn the soil’s ph-level. Secondly, soil in this area of the Mediterranean is so alcaline that a bit of acidity certainly won’t hurt.
• Surface composting: Throw non-invasive weeds and other gardening or green kitchen waste directly on the soil to keep it covered.
• Make and use your own compost from gardening and green kitchen waste. You will need to keep it in a covered container and give it a bit of water in the summer to keep it moist enough for the contents to turn into compost. Keep the containers in the shade of half-shade.
  An open compost heap will dry out and become a fire risk in this climate. Depending on where you live you will also be under water restrictions in the summer and won’t be able to waste water on keeping a compost heap moist.
• Horse Manure: Look for people wanting to sell or give away manure. Mostly this will be horse manure, it could also come from goats or chickens. If possible, manure should not be fresh. You can put down fresh manure in the fall/winter but it will take a while to break down. I still found some mummified horse apples a year later. Look for aged manure which will be mostly dry and a bit fluffy. I only used it on the ornamental garden so didn’t worry about antibiotics and such. Horse manure will probably contain some weed seeds so be prepared to be on the watch for more or other weeds than usual the next spring.
• Straw or hay for vegetables: Look for farmers selling hay or straw in practical amounts or buy “paillage” like miscanthus, hemp, flax etc.
  I find shredded mulching like miscanthus easier to handle than farm straw/hay because it is easier to distribute around the plants.
  There is a debate about farm hay or straw in mulching. Straw is easier to obtain, decomposes slower, and contains less weed seeds. However it uses up nitrogen in decomposing, a nutrient needed by the plants themselves. So you would need to use more plant food if mulching with straw. Hay does not use nitrogen. I used hay for the first summer. In this dry climate it didn’t decompose quickly at all and I had no unusual problem with weeds afterwards.

Protect from Sun and Wind

• Mulching will protect the soil.
• Planting for sun protection: You can protect plants from the sun by planting closely and by planting at different heights so plants can shade each other.
• Protective structures: You can put teepees, trellises or other vertical structures around plantings to provide shade.
• Shade nets: You can use commercially bought shading nets, which will mostly be dark green or black. I use white winter fleece.