Grey powdery soil

Patricia422

Help!  I lifted some forget-me-nots and underneath the soil was grey, dry and powdery - never seen anything like it before and the more I dug down and around there was more and more of this.  It seems very extensive yet the plants look fine.  What is it?

Pete.8

I've had the same occasionally over the years, and it is often when I'm pulling out forget-me-nots that I notice. I don't think they're to blame though. The 'soil' is totally dry, dusty, grey with bits of mould here and there.

There was a thread on this forum last year asking a very similar question.
I can't remember the outcome exactly, but I think the consensus was that it was down to some sort of 'capping' on the soil that prevents rain getting down into the soil.
We've had no appreciable rain in my part of Essex for nigh on 9 months now, so most of my garden is a bit like that now...
A bit of a dig-over and incorporate some compost will hopefully resolve the situation

Dovefromabove

It's probably mycelium from some sort of fungi ... does it smell mushroomy?  We get it in some areas of the garden ... it seems to be in areas where there were once some decayed tree roots.  It's not causing any problem to the plants or grass 

Patricia422

Thanks for the responses.  It's very dry here in South London too. I'll give it a good dig once all the forget-me-nots have finished and add some home-made compost.