So, your looking to improve your garden soil? Your soil is the cornerstone of every garden. It provides the nutrients and moisture for your plants throughout the growing season. Maybe you’ve had a garden for several years, or this is your first time attempting gardening, pay special attention to the soil you’re planting. Your garden’s production can suffer if your soil doesn’t provide the correct nutrients.
Unfortunately, many gardeners do not routinely check a soil sample. As the saying goes, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it, but if you start noticing, plants are not growing as expected or producing as expected. You may have to take a closer look at your soil. He will walk you through the six steps that can be useful to improve your garden soil.
1.Test your soil
Soil testing is an excellent tool to improve your garden soil after noticing the garden is less productive, or you’re just starting a garden and want to set yourself up for success. So soil testing gives you information on every nutrient currently in your soil and other things such as soil pH. Based on these results, you can supplement for nutrients you lack or take action to amend a two high pH or too low.
A great time to test your soil is in early spring. Many home test kits are available. They are highly convenient as you don’t have to take your soil anywhere. Instead, the soil test comes to you. The disadvantage is that they need to provide more information on nutrients.
Another option is to take a soil sample to your local soil testing center or University extension, which could provide a soil test. These tests are comprehensive; if they are deficiencies, they can give tips and suggestions for remedying the problem and improve your garden soil. You can find lists of soil test centers here for your area.
2.Add Nutrients based on Soil Test.
Remember that changing your soil’s composition can take time and will not be an overnight fix. However, adding organic compost, aged manure, and slow-release fertilizer will slowly release nutrients for an extended period.
You may not see the effects of adding these organic materials to your garden immediately; long term, this will increase the fertility of your soil,
Short-acting fertilizers are available that can quickly increase deficient nutrients; this will feed your currently growing plants but won’t change the makeup of the soil. But it will not be a long-term fix.
Increasing the acidity or alkalinity of your soil can take time and should not be expected to happen quickly. However, quick changes in the pH of your soil can damage the plants, so follow the instructions on the packaging to amend your soil to the preferred pH slowly.
3.Amend Your Soil Texture by Adding Organic Material.
Some common examples of organic matter used to improve your garden soil are compost, mulch, aged manure, and peat moss.
Compost
Compost is an excellent addition to improve your garden soil. Classically called gardeners gold, adding compost soil that only enhances the quality and makeup of the soil, provides nutrients and beneficial microorganisms, and attracts worms and other beneficial insects.
Compost can be homemade with a combination of brown and green components. In addition, ordinary household scraps, including food wastes such as egg shells, banana peels, and coffee grounds, can be added to the compost. This provides a sustainable way to add nutrients to your garden.
Composting takes time; it can take months for the organic materials to break down into compost. Start a compost pile of composting bins this year to use for next year’s garden. If you need more than homemade compost, there are many places it can be bought, prepackaged, or in bulk.
Mulch
Mulch is an essential but often forgotten component to improve your garden soil and the growth of your garden veggies. Mulch is used for siding dress along your role of vegetables and can help the soil retain moisture, protecting your vegetable root systems in times of heat and below-average rainfall. In addition, mulch breaks down slowly over time, adding nutrients to your soil. Finally, mulch provides a hospitable environment for worms and other beneficial insects and organisms.
Examples of mulch include wood chips, fallen leaves, and grass clippings. Wood chips break down slowly but slowly, and nutrients into the soil for months to come. Fallen leaves and grass clippings break down much faster than our nitrogen sources for your garden.
Keep in mind; you can overdo the mulching. I recommend about 2 to 3 inches of mulch at the beginning of the year, and if you were successive planting, add mulch along the row as you plant new crops. Avoid mulching too heavily over perennials, as this can suffocate them and can foster disease growth.
Manure
Manure is a great way to improve your garden soil quality while adding nutrients. Horse, cow, chicken, and sheep manure are common food additives to garden soils. They provide organic material, nutrients, and moisture to your garden soil.
Raw mature can be used, but reference the USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP). Due to the risks of bacterial pathogens, strict rules exist on the timing of applying raw mature based on the vegetables you are planting. In addition, raw manure is high in nitrogen and can burn existing plants if used to side dress.
I recommend using aged or composted manure. Composed manure can be composted over several months, significantly reducing the risk of illness, and can render the weed seeds in the manure incapable of germinating.
4.Consider Cover Crops
Cover crops are a great way to improve your garden soil. Cover crops are grown in vacant portions of your garden. Their role is multi-faceted, with their roots keeping the soil loose, suppressing weed growth, improving soil moister, and reducing ground heat. Great choices are legume family, such as clover, which fixes nitrogen and returns nitrogen to the soil. Plants can then be till into the soil, returning organic matter to the soil where it can decompose and add additional nutrients.
5.Worms, Fungi, Microorganisms
Worms
Soil and worms go hand-in-hand. There are many different types of worms. Some prefer to stay shower and eat organic material from the surface, helping encourage these materials to decompose. On the other hand, some worms burrow deeper, eating through the soil, leaving their burrows and casings behind. These barrows allow easier passage of air and water throughout the soil and therefore improve the aeration and drain ability of your soil.
You can do some simple things to increase the number of worms in your garden.
Worms like organic matter and cool, moist soil. Organic materials such as compost, or even fallen leaves, grass clippings, and mulch are excellent organic materials you can add to your garden to attract worms. Use these organic materials to cover any exposed ground throughout your garden.
Keep your garden adequately watered. Adding things like mulch and plants that provide a lot of ground cover will help keep your soil moist and encourage the worms to continue to work on it.
Of course, as you are trying to encourage worms, avoid pesticides and chemical fertilizers, as these can harm or deter worms from working in your garden.
Fungi and Microorganisms
Fungi are important decomposers in the soil, breaking down dead organic matter and releasing nutrients back into the soil. In addition, fungi produce a network of fine threads called hyphae that can help to create soil structure. Hyphae can bind soil particles, improving soil aggregation, aeration, and water infiltration.
There are up to 100,000 microorganisms in each handful of soil. Even if you can’t see them, they work hard, breaking down carbon and producing nitrogen for plant use.
Tips / FAQ
- Get a soil test if your plants start looking yellow or sickly. Home kits are helpful, but a formal soil sample will give you a much more comprehensive report, typically with recommendations on improving your soil.
- Compost is an excellent choice for a soil additive. Improving your soil will take time; there is no quick fix.
- Fertilizers supplement nutrients for your existing garden plants but will not enhance your garden soil.
- Compost can be inexpensive and can be homemade. In addition, leaves and grass clippings are cheap and easy additives to your soil. Also available for purchase at most gardening stores
- Avoid over-tilling your soil, damaging fungi, disrupting microorganism ecosystems, and killing worms. Try to minimize to once in early spring to loosen the soil before planting.
Conclusion
Improve your garden soil with these 5 suggestions to get the most out of your garden. Soil quality is often overlooked but is integral to the success of your garden. Soil testing is a great way to understand the state of your soil and make adjustments on those results. Foster an environment that supports nature’s assistants, worms, fungi, and other microorganisms to improve the health of your soil. Finally, if production is waning or your plants aren’t their lushest self, take and step back and start from the ground up.