Healthy soil, healthy plants

Back in his farming days, Tom Clifton would have planted a deep-rooting variety of radish to alleviate soil compaction and drain and aerate his fields.

Now, though, with his focus on high end gardens, he’s using an impressive piece of soil injection equipment, allied to 40-plus years of experience, to tackle the same problem for those who want their lawns, flower beds and trees to look their absolute best.

With a long background in farming, Tom, who has set up The Soil Doctors with wife Maggie, has always been fascinated by soil, its impact on plants and how to get the very best out of it.

“I was doing what’s now called ‘regen agriculture’ before it was a thing,” he recalled. “I’ve always worked with the soil and tried to cut down on expensive chemicals. Healthy plants don’t need a lot of chemicals – just decent soil.”

Given that scenario, the only question is how to make sure the soil is as good as it can be, particularly when it’s underneath an immaculately laid and beautifully mown lawn.

With radishes out of the question, Tom has invested in a Vogt Geo Injector Pro, a high-tech soil injector that injects vital soil improvers and other additives into the soil at regular intervals while opening it up to ensure better drainage.

While the additives – such as biochar and zeolite – are important, the main component of the injection will always be air, and it is a measure of Tom’s determination to get every last detail right that he has invested in a high-end compressor that can deliver 12 bar of air pressure to ensure the soil is fully fractured.

“It’s just not possible to hire a compressor that will deliver pressure this high, so we went out and bought our own,” he explained, highlighting his determination to do the best possible job for all his customers.

Before work starts, The Soil Doctors carry out a full assessment of the soil. “Clearly soil varies enormously, so we take a sample, analyse it and then use our experience to calculate the best mix of nutrients and additives to make it as good as it can be while also improving the drainage if that’s an issue,” Tom explained.

While the nozzle on the injector goes vertically into the ground, the injector holes are in the side, so high pressure air blasts its way horizontally through the compacted soil. The results are impressive, not just for lawns but for trees and other planted areas.

The Soil Doctors are often brought in to ‘rescue’ high end gardens that have been planted with many thousands of pounds worth of exotic plants, shrubs and trees with no thought as to the soil in which they are being planted.

“People move into a nice property and invite a garden designer to come up with a wonderful scheme and then someone else comes along and plants it, not always terribly well, and then a few months later the homeowner wonders why his or her £5,000 worth of plants aren’t doing terribly well on a pure clay topsoil,” Tom explained.

The Soil Doctors have even managed to find a combination of additives which can revive box hedging, which many gardeners have resorted to pulling up recently. “We’ve had a lot of success with box – it responds well to this treatment,” Tom said.

Tom’s interest in soil goes back to his childhood. He grew up on the family farm on the Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border, where his grandfather Harry ran the last threshing contracting business in Cambridgeshire.

He pulled a plough behind a Fordson Dexta at the age of seven (“Not sure that would be allowed today”, he commented) and so it was no surprise that he went into farming, working as a contractor and then as a farm manager before going it alone at the helm of T&T Garden Services, the parent company of The Soil Doctors.

The company has built up an enviable reputation for supplying quality garden services and has no fewer than 22 lawnmowers, all designed to do a specific job in particular circumstances. They run from a 21” Allett cylinder mower to a ride-on Ariens Zero-Turn 52”.

Tom and Maggie’s daughter Anneka works with the business, along with Melvin Lehkyj and Luke Frankson, and the company’s attention to detail is highlighted by Tom insisting that members of the team use a prismatic grass gauge when cutting lawns. “When I say I want it cut to 35mm, I mean 35mm, not 40mm,” Tom pointed out.

And while he has decades of experience, Tom is always keen to learn and to make the most of new technology like the Vogt injector. “Other people go on holidays; I go on courses,” he chuckled.

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