A look at the different types of soil and how the right soil keeps gardens healthy

Adding bulky decayed vegetable matter and natural fertilisers replaces the lost nutrients and keeps the soil in good condition.

To manage your soil to the best advantage, you need to know whether it is light or heavy. Sand is lightest and coarsest in texture. It feels harsh and gritty, and the particles scarcely hold together at all, even when moist.

Chalk also has a light texture. Clay is heaviest and finest in texture. It feels sticky like putty when wet and dries out into rocklike clods. In between the two extremes, silty soils feel smooth, soft and floury.

What your soil needs
Light soils such as sand and chalk are free draining and need organic matter such as garden compost or well-rotted manure incorporated to improve their capacity to hold water and nutrients.

Heavy soils such as clay and silt need to be opened up, as in their natural state they are poor draining and hard to work. Adding organic matter again helps to improve the soil. With very heavy soil, it is also worth digging in coarse grit at the rate of two buckets per square yard or metre. Use the weather to your advantage.

Do heavy work such as breaking in new ground or digging over a plot in autumn. Leave the earth rough in large clods; the frost will get into it and help to break it down to a crumbly texture.

Garden compost is one of the most effective materials both for feeding the soil and improving its structure Others are rotted manure, leaf mould, and materials available at a garden centre such as finely chipped or composted bark.

Compost bins for convenience
Inside a bin, garden debris heats up rapidly, the rotting process is faster, the amount of water in the heap can be controlled and everything stays neatly in one place. You need more than one container to make enough compost, unless your garden is small.

Section box
Cheap and easy to make, each square is made from four pieces of floorboard nailed to four battens. You can add sections as the heap builds up, then take them away to mix or remove compost or move the heap.

Insulated panels
Metal bins with insulated panels help debris to heat up and rot rapidly. These bins are raised off the ground with bricks and mesh to improve air circulation, and are easy to take apart for emptying.

Chicken wire and carpet
Make your own cheap compost bin by stapling wire mesh round four posts. Line the inside with old carpet. An unlined container is best for making leaf mould.

Double action
Some metal bins are divided into two sections for the most convenient use of space. One side ‘cooks’ while the other is being filled.

New Zealand box
With a slotted front for easy access, a New Zealand box is solid and long lasting. Either buy one, or make one from 3 ft (1 m) planks. If you make two bins, stand them side by side, so they share one wall and save wood and heat.

Compost tumbler
Made of plastic on a metal frame, a tumbler saves the job of emptying, mixing and reloading the heap. The compost rots down fast because you can aerate it frequently by turning it.

Turn waste into compost
You can make compost at home. Kitchen and garden waste is an immensely valuable source of nutrients and soil conditioners, so it is worth making use of it rather than throwing it all away or burning it.

To make the best compost, you need the right balance of air, water and garden debris. The tidiest way to combine the three elements is in a container, although you can simply make a heap on the ground and cover it with a thick sheet of pegged-down black plastic while it slowly rots into usable compost.

Virtually any waste can go on the heap except diseased plant material and perennial weed roots, which will continue to grow there unless the mixture becomes very hot indeed.

Collect kitchen scraps, such as vegetable and fruit peelings, coffee grounds and teabags, for the heap, but avoid cooked food and raw meat which encourage rats and mice. Eggshells can go on the heap, but take a long time to rot. Large amounts of orange and lemon peel make the compost too acidic.

Cardboard boxes, waste paper and old newspapers can be scrunched up or shredded and mixed into the heap.

Ideally, add a nitrogen-rich material at about every 1 ft (30 cm) depth as the heap builds up, to increase the compost's fertility and speed the rotting process. This could be fresh manure, nettle shoots or comfrey leaves. There is also a range of compost activators on sale.

Worms burrow in and out, breaking down the material. Bacteria also work on the compost. To increase their activity and improve drainage, stand the bin on soil rather than paving.

If possible, site the compost where you are going to grow vegetables in future. Then you make the most of nutrients that may seep out from the bottom of the heap. This natural feeder makes the soil very fertile.

Make sure your bin is easily accessible with a wheelbarrow. You may be adding heavy material such as manure and large quantities of weeds too awkward to carry.

Make the best compost
The richest compost comes from a mixture of soggy debris, such as lawn mowings and kitchen waste, and prunings. Strawy manure, nettles or mowings all speed up the process, but any material rots in the end.

Most heaps take about six months to ‘cook’. Once the mixture is brown and crumbly it is ready to use.

1. Spread a thick layer of coarse, woody prunings in the base. Push it into the corners but do not press down. This layer raises the heap slightly off the ground, helping air to circulate so that the compost rots down more quickly.

2. Fork a layer of weeds (but not the roots of perennial types), ornamental plant trimmings and old bedding plants onto the heap. If you are using an open-fronted container put another slat in place to stop material spilling out.

3. To speed the rotting process as you fill the bin, mix the weeds with grass clippings or comfrey leaves. Combining coarse material with fine aerates the grass clippings which might otherwise become slimy and smelly.

4. If the heap seems dry, sprinkle it with water. It is better to water as you go along rather than at the end, to get an even consistency. The material needs to be damp enough to encourage the bacteria that make it rot, but not soaking wet.

5. Cover the heap so that you can prevent moisture loss but keep out rainwater. A lid also helps it to heat up more quickly. A piece of old carpet does the job splendidly, coupled with a sheet of polythene to keep the rain out.

6. Once the bin is full, leave it for a month or two. If you have enough space, turn the compost to mix it. Empty the material out and fork it back in. Turn the heap sides to middle as it goes back in. The centre is hotter and rots faster.

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