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Autumn Tidy Up
With the arrival of dark mornings thoughts turn to tidying the garden up for winter. The first frosts will soon finish off the annuals and tender perennials, while the hardy perennials die back for the winter and the deciduous trees and shrubs will take on their autumn colours before dropping their leaves. Any tiding up…
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Phosphorus (P)
This is the second most important plant nutrient after nitrogen and important in its take up. Phosphorus is an important element in many of the complex compounds in plants which they need. For example it is one of only five different elements in DNA, the others being oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon. Even with an…
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Potassium (K)
This has a range of vital roles in plants, thought the exact nature and extent of them is still not well understood. It is generally more likely to be in short supply in soils with little clay in them such as peat and sandy soils.
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Potash
A common name for potassium.
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Nitrogen (N)
One of the main plant nutrients and used by plants to make all proteins, and therefore as well enzymes, chlorophyll and many other essential parts of plants. The amount of nitrogen available to a plant is often the factor which limits it rate of growth and its behaviour within the soil is a very complex…
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Nutrients
These are chemicals plants use to grow and are often divided into macronutrients and trace elements. These terms are in themselves are of limited use as if the plant needs the chemical to grow, in however small a quality, its absence is going to cause problems. In practice the main ones are nitrogen (N), phosphorus…
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Trace elements
This is rather a catch all term for a very large group of chemical elements which plants need, but in very small amounts. It is very rare that adequate amounts of them are not naturally present in the soil.
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Taking over an established garden – where to begin
Most people when they buy a new house find they are taking over an existing garden and this will present certain challenges; you have after all bought their house not their tastes. It is therefore inevitable not everything in the garden you are going to like and/or want. It is reasonable to assume on first…
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Soil water
This is simply the water in the soil, but it is a very important and complex mixture of chemicals dissolved in water.
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Alkaline
This is a water based solution which has a Ph above 7. Most alkaline soils (also called basic soils) lie in the range 7 to 9.
