The Basics of Healthy Garden Soil
Keeping your soil healthy can be a challenge but reaps many rewards. This article will teach you the basics of soil health as well as how to improve your soil for healthy and thriving plants.
Your garden plants are only as good as the soil they grow in. If you want a good harvest or beautiful blooms that last through the season, then you need to give them a nourishing place to grow by developing healthy garden soil.
Many factors go into creating healthy soil, and putting in the effort will pay off in a big way all growing season. Here’s what you need to know about the basics of garden soil.
Far from just dirt, garden soil is alive and complex. It contains a mix of minerals, water, air, organic matter, and plenty of microorganisms. Achieving the right balance between these components is the key to developing healthy garden soil.
Like all living things, garden soil needs to be fed regularly. Failing to add nutrients back into the ground after growing plants in it will cause the soil to become deficient, leading to lackluster plant growth.
You can support soil health with regular doses of organic matter, such as shredded leaves, aged compost, animal manure, and grass clippings.
Microscopic life plays a massive role in the health of garden soil. Soil microbes improve soil structure, break down nutrients into forms that plants can access, and help plant roots better absorb water and nutrients.
It’s best to boost soil microbes through regular doses of organic material. As these microorganisms break the material down, the soil texture will improve, and nutrients in the soil will become available for your plants.
Beyond its nutrient content, the soil needs to have a good physical structure. It must contain enough space between particles for oxygen and water to infiltrate to keep microbe populations healthy. The soil’s composition of three main types of particles will impact its overall structure:
Is your soil performing at less than its best? Many factors affect soil health, including the following.
Improving your garden soil takes time and research. Following these steps will give you a head start towards achieving healthy garden soil.
Before you can improve your soil, it’s important to understand what’s lacking in the first place.
A soil test will provide a comprehensive overview of the nutrient profile and let you know what amendments will make the most significant difference. Most soil tests will identify the pH level, the amount of potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, and sulfur in the soil, and the concentration of organic material.
It’s possible to purchase soil testing kits online, or you can connect with your local extension service for resource help and more in-depth analysis. Make sure you conduct a soil test every few years to see how the soil changes over time so you can adjust your strategy accordingly.
Adding compost is one of the best ways to build up healthy soil. Compost is made from decomposed organic material, and working it into the ground improves the soil structure, boosts its nutrient profile, and even helps with drainage and water absorption.
Take care to apply compost as directed by the seller, as too much can overwhelm your growing space with specific nutrients and lead to problems. For example, excessive amounts of nitrogen will cause plants to put all their energy into leaf production at the cost of growing flowers or fruit.
This is also the time to add other lacking soil amendments. Garden lime can reduce the soil’s acidity, while bone meal adds an infusion of phosphorus and calcium.
A proven way to protect the soil for the long term is to apply mulch on top of it. Not only does mulch stimulate natural growing conditions in a forest system, but it helps retain moisture, suppresses weed growth, and prevents soil from eroding or blowing away in extreme weather events.
Best of all, mulch will slowly decompose into the soil to increase its fertility.
The more soil is worked, the more likely it is to become compacted. That’s a problem for soil health, as it prevents air and water from reaching plant roots.
Clay soil is most likely to become compacted, and over time it can become barren and nearly impossible to work.
Prevent this problem by creating garden paths so you don’t step into the planting space. Wait to work the soil until it’s completely dry.
It’s a mistake to grow annual vegetable crops in the same garden beds each year. Doing so increases the chances of depleting the soil of nutrients, spreading disease, and promoting pest populations.
Instead, plant crops in different locations every growing season so that each plant family only grows in one spot every three years. This prevents any plant family from pulling too much of one nutrient out of the ground and ensures that disease spores and insect pests die out before they return.
Improving your garden soil is a long-term task that takes careful planning and experimentation to get right. Following the tips in this article will help you start out right on your journey to achieving perfect garden soil. With some patience and effort, your hard work will result in healthy soil that lasts for growing seasons to come.