Soil in simple terms is a mixture of sand,
clay and humus*.
When the balance of these three ingredients gets out of
kilter we get problem soil
e.g. clay soil has too much clay, sandy soil has too
much sand.
We can restore the balance by adding whatever ingredients
are missing
e.g. add sand and/or humus to clay soil to restore the
balance.
(*Humus
is the organic content of soil and is derived from dead and
rotting plant material)
Peat:
Peat
is the most widely used source of Humus in Gardening.
However it is to all intents and purposes a non-renewable
material and we now need to preserve it by changing to peat
alternatives.
Bark:
Bark
is the best alternative to Peat and as it is a waste product
from forestry it is environmentally friendly.
Chipped Bark is an ideal mulch
and is more decorative than composted bark or peat.
Bark is in fact superior to peat in that it is slower to break
down and so lasts about 3 times longer than peat.
Ground or Composted Bark
is an ideal alternative to peat for digging into the soil to
raise the humus level.
Cocoa
Shell:
This was a popular mulch for a while but the cocoa tends
to attract mice.
Coir:
This was a popular mulch for a while but has lost popularity.
