Interesting day at college - not that they aren't usually - but today we spent the afternoon in one of the labs doing basic soil tests.
A series of diagnostic checks - involving rolling damp soil into balls and sausage shapes - on samples from the garden and the allotment suggested that both are sandy, silty loams. The sample from the allotment proved to have a slightly low pH for vegetable growing - around 6.0 - while the sample from the garden veg plot scored a healthier 6.5.
So it looks like the allotment needs a bit of a dose of lime; apart from being beneficial to some of the crops, it might also prove to be detremental to the annoying "Sheep's sorrel" weed which seems to be one of our worst problem plants.
