A pinch of salt

In small doses, salt can benefit your garden. Bob reveals how it can kill weeds, boost lawns and support crops

- Bob Flowerdew

ODD stuff, salt. Too much in your diet and it’s bad for you, while too little is apparently worse. It is said to be so valuable it entered our language from salarium, which was the salt ration in a Roman soldiers’ pay.

Yet we use salt, with grit, on our roads when it’s icy (because salt makes ice melt). And people worry about that salt damaging their nearby plants – after all, in biblical times, victors were described as ‘salting’ the fields and orchards of their victims.