Soil and compost

Everything you grow starts with the stuff under your feet. Get your soil right and half the job's done for you: plants that shrug off dry spells, fewer pests, less feeding and a lot less faff. Get it wrong and you'll spend every summer fighting.

This is where we cover the good, dark, crumbly basics. Making your own compost, mulching to feed and protect, and the no-dig approach that lets the worms do the digging so you don't have to. None of it's complicated, and most of it's free.