We’ve cleared the remains of beans and sweet corn in the central raised bed. They seemed to have got very scrappy and didn’t grow brilliantly. Before we do any more planting, I decided to check the ph of the soil.

We are used to very alkaline soil down here near the South Downs and chalky cliffs. Surprisingly, therefore, our soil is rather on the acid side at 5.2. But it’s soil in our raised beds, rather than directly on the ground.

This is too acid to be optimum for most vegetables which like soil to be between 6-7. As an Australian site puts it: “Plant growth and most soil processes, including nutrient availability and microbial activity, are favoured by a soil pH range of 5.5 – 8. Acid soil, particularly in the subsurface, will also restrict root access to water and nutrients.”

I suspect this acidity has built up because we have put a lot of our compost into the soil – maybe too much. We like to think that organic material feeds the soil, but we may have got the balance wrong. We also used a fair amount of manure at the beginning – and we’ve incorporated Growmore at various points.

The obvious solution is to add lime: it seems so odd, since I am constantly dealing with too much alkalinity in my own garden. But it may be that with a summer of drought and deluge, the soil in our raised beds has just leached elements which would have kept the balance.

I’m going to monitor it – so that we can gradually adjust the composition of our soil ready for the next growing season. Useful websites on soil acidity can be found here and here