Improving soil structure
Soil can be improved by enriching it minerally or organically.
Mineral enrichment
- Add lime, little by little, to neutralize acidity
- Add sand, minimum 3/4mm sand, to make the soil less sticky
- Add vermiculite to lighten the soil
- Add wood ashes. Depending on the type of wood burned, their ashes contain up to 5% potassium, as well as phosphorous, iron, ...
Organic enrichment
Organic enrichment is the result of decomposed vegetable matter or animal dung.
These help to lighten the sticky or clayey soil by loosening it up. Sandy soil, unlike clayey soil, improves the liaisons between the elements of which it is composed.
Furthermore, this humous absorbes humidity, thus helping plants to survive harsh summers .
- Add compost made from decomosed vegetable mattter and organic household waste to improve the structure of the soil and to enrich it with nutritive matter.
- Add horse, donkey, sheep, poultry or goat's dung to heavy soil to improve its structure and to enrich it with nutritive matter.
- Add cowdung to light soil to improve its structure and to enrich it wioth nutritive matter.
- Add leaf mould to enrich the soil with nutritive matter.
- Add fibric peat (or a similar product). This is peat which has condensed over the years. It decomposes very slowly and therefore structures the soil for a long period. However, peat doesn't contain much fertilizing elements for plants. Peat is exellent for lightening heavy soil. It increases the soil's capacity to retain groundwater .
- Grow natural fertilizer, like mustard. These plants develop very quickly, and you simply have to bury them to enrich the soil before Winter. Sow them after the summer harvest. One of the best organic fertilizers is the annual crimson clover. Burying it helps improve clayey soil as well as enriching its nitrogen content.
Note that peat has other uses.