Light or Sandy soils
Add as much organic matter as you can get your hands on provided that it doesn’t lower your acidity too much (see “Types of Organic Matter”). Make the most of your soil by growing plants that need an early start. Use fertilisers which are slow acting and long lasting to avoid them leaching out. Keep an eye on the acidity level. It can change quickly in light soils. Don’t overdo the use of lime. Small frequent dressings are the best bet.

Heavy or Clay soils
Only work them when the weather is right. Dig in autumn and leave over winter to weather. it makes them much easier to break down in spring. Use organic matter wherever possible, for long term structure improvement. If possible the sort you use should have quite a lot of fibrous material in it. Don’t use a rotavator especially in autumn or in wet weather. You can ruin years of painstaking work in a few moments.

Chalk or alkaline soils
If you must grow acid loving plants on a chalk site, try one of the following:

Quick but expensive
Build raised beds (at least 12 inches high) to plant into, and use non alkaline soil to fill them. Ideally use an acid peat soil, and build the bed from peat blocks. Do not dig through the new soil so as to mix the old chalk soil from “underneath” into it.

Slow but less costly
Add as much acid making organic matter as you can. Peat and (weed free!) manure are ideal. Use them frequently as a mulch on the surface. Do not dig them in. Lime and chalk always move downwards in the soil, so cultivate as shallowly and infrequently as possible. Avoid digging unless absolutely essential. Gradually, the dilute acids produced by the decomposing organic matter will replace the effect of the chalk/lime as they are washed down into the soil.