Plympton soils

The text above is from a detailed post about Adelaide soils from an Adelaide-based business called Epic Projects. You can find their article here, if you want to dive into the details. What I want you to notice is that describing the soil type we have here in Plympton, it uses the words 'ideal for gardening'! This means that gardeners across the world would be envious of the soils we are lucky enough to be growing in. What more garden inspiration could you want?

Of course, your soils may not be the perfect Plympton loam described above. There are many things can damage soil, and these are common in gardens in the suburbs. Your soil might have become severely compacted, and this often happens during building projects. This means that the natural air pockets in the soil have been squeezed together, making it less hospitable for root growth.

Your soils may be contaminated in some way - through heavy metals (hopefully not), or due to more everyday disasters. A common contamination is from builders cleaning out their cement from wheelbarrows and cement mixers in your backyard, leading to accumulations of alkaline deposits in your soil. Cement is highly alkaline (pH 13.5), which is not good for most plants, which tend to prefer a neutral soil (a pH of around 7). Another possible contamination source can be greywater. This is water used in the house, typically for showering or laundry, that is reused in the garden. Sustainable Gardening Australia has a useful article about this, with some important dos or don'ts.

In a more ordinary sense, most city gardens (and even many rural ones), will have a wide variety of garbage in them. This may result from waste being blown into your yard from your neighbour's bin (or your own!) to old garden labels, wire, etc. You will also perhaps end up with plastic waste accidentally, that were laminated with paper you composted, or those pesky plastic plant labels that survive for years. Much of this garbage is pretty harmless, although old glass can be a literal pain, and plastics will break down in sunlight to tiny microscopic pieces (also known as microplastics) which are a source of contamination for all wildlife, as well as us, because we all rely on healthy soil to grow food.

Having read all that, I don't want to seem like I am promoting doom and gloom. This is more about reminding you that good soil is precious. It takes hundreds and thousands of years to be created by natural processes - primarily the weathering of rocks - and we need to remember that polluting it, or allowing it to blow away as dust in a strong wind is a loss of something valuable and necessary to anything we want to grow.

The more we look after our soils - across the world, and in our shared neighbourhoods - the greener and healthier our streets, suburbs and regions will be.

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P: 0481 298 768

E: info@fruitfulgardens.com.au