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BOUNTIFUL GARDENS BEGIN WITH HEALTHY SOIL
A major difference between farmers and gardeners is that most farmers farm to earn a living, and most gardeners garden as a hobby.
Since farmers' livelihoods are on the line each time they plant a crop, they have learned some lessons about how to achieve optimum yields. As gardeners, we can benefit by studying these lessons and applying them to our gardens.
Perhaps the most important lesson we can learn from farmers has to do with soil.
I've had soil on my mind (and under my fingernails) for several reasons. First, I've been digging in my clay again and have had to amend my soil to ensure that the trees and shrubs I'm planting will grow. Also, a local gardener called me last week wondering why her vegetables did so poorly last year. Several questions revealed that her garden has become compacted and has not benefited from any dug-in organic matter for a long time.
The most productive gardens are generally the gardens with the healthiest soil. For plants to grow and flourish year after year, soil needs to have a good inherent structure. Farmers know this, and they work hard to create optimum soil structure for vigorous plant growth.
If you've left your city limits at all in recent weeks, you've no doubt seen and smelled manure. It's that time of year. Two obvious reasons farmers spread manure on their fields is to get the ubiquitous stuff out of their barns, and to add nutrients to the soil.
Another huge benefit of manure, however, is the contribution manure makes to healthy soil. Most manure you see being spread in fields contains high levels of straw or corn stalks that have been used for animal bedding. As this fibrous material gets tilled into the soil, it makes soil much "friendlier" for plant growth.
Soil is classified according to its clay, silt and sand content. The size and proportion of these mineral particles help determine the chemical and physical behavior of the soil. Clay particles are less than 1/16,000 in diameter, silt particles are up to 25 times larger than clay particles, and sand particles may be 1,000 times larger - up to 1/16 inch.
Loam soils have the ideal balance of mineral particles sizes. Loam soil contains between 8 and 25% clay and is characterized by good drainage and water retention and high fertility.
Clay soils are often highly fertile but are heavy, slow draining and slow to warm in the spring. Clay soil is easily compacted and may bake hard in summer.
Both sandy and silt soils have a low proportion of clay particles, making them much less water-retentive than clay. Sandy soils are particularly light and drain freely; they need frequent irrigation and feeding. However, they warm up quickly in spring and are easily improved with organic matter. Silts are more retentive and fertile than sandy soils but tend to compact more easily.
In a well-structured soil, particles form crumbs that exist as part of an inter-connecting network of pores through which water, nutrients and air circulate. The structure of the soil determines its ability to hold water, the rate at which it drains, and its fertility.
As you begin to plant flowers and vegetables this spring, study the soil in your garden and flowerbeds. Have you enriched it recently by digging in generous amounts of organic matter? The best time to amend your soil is in the fall, or in spring before seeding or transplanting.
Improving soil is not the most glamorous aspect of gardening, but it can do more to contribute to bigger and juicier fruits and vegetables, and more spectacular flowers, than most other gardening tasks.
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PUTTING DOWN ROOTS:
A Delightful Blend of
Gardening Wisdom, Wit
and Whimsy
$10 + $2 for shipping
by Cliff Johnson |
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