Soil Preperation

SOIL PREPARATION and maintaining fertility is the most important job in the garden and at the moment I'm digging over the third of the plot that wasn't done in the autumn. This part of the plot doesn't need mucking this year; I left it in the autumn with a deep covering of leaves and when I rake these off the soil is full of worms and turning it over is easy work. This is when you appreciate incorporating plenty of manure or compost into the soil; at sowing time the texture will have become the fabled "crumbly tilth", ideal for sowing into. As it gets nearer to sowing and planting time for each crop the soil will also get a dressing of fish, blood and bone. And where the brassicas and carnations are to go, some calcified seaweed.

The muck heap: