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Vermiculite
Libellule
Posts: 2
we are about to replant a large flower bed. Our soil is light, thin, grey, low in nutrients. We garden just outside Dover so garden on the equivalent of down land turf, shallow, over chalk. The bed faces south and is chronically dry most of the time. I d like to prepare the soil to improve it before planting and have read that vermiculite holds water. I'm considering adding vermiculite because we do not have any homemade compost to use. Can anyone advise me as to whether this would be a good choice to boost the water retaining qualities of the bed?
thx in advance.
0
Posts
Very expensive way of dong things.
You would be much better buying some manure and adding that to the soil,
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Libellule, Vermiculite is used in potting mix not for ground soil, if you can mix in spent mushroom compost, there's a mushroom farm in Longfield, Kent or manure £3 from Wickes.
Yep, thank you, I know it's normally used in potting mixes. Mushroom compost not good on chalk soils, I believe, in terms of redressing alkalinity ? However, have listened to other advice suggesting I just buy in manure. Guess I'll end up doing that. Thanks for your post!
Go to your local stables, mine give the stuff away for free by the bag load.
If vermiculite dries out it blows away.
If your soil is already high pH, then mushroom compost may not alter anything ( check pH first)
Do check that any stable manure is well rotted before adding it to planted areas.
Mulch, mulch and mulch again. Pile it on and let the worms do the work, manure, compost, grass clippings, autumn leaves. All good stuff.