Gardening - Vege Soils
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Ideal soil is hard to come by. You want a soil that will retain moisture,
but give the roots of your plants a chance to breathe and not be
drowned. Clay is tightly packed soil that doesn't drain very fast at all.
Sand on the other hand, is loosely packed and drains too fast. If you
can keep the water and nutrients to sand though, it is really hard to
beat.
Loam is what you need as your soil. Loam is basically 40 percent
sand, 40 percent humus, and 20 percent clay. Unless you are going
to replace your soil in your garden, you will have to doctor up your
current soil to get it as close to perfect as you can get it. Within
economic reason that is. How do you do this you may ask? Organic
material added to your soils will improve the downfalls of both clay and
sandy soils. Please see our article on composting. There is no reason
to burn your leaves in the fall or have them raked to the curb to be
hauled away. Same goes for your grass clippings. If you have access
to a farm where there is straw used as bedding, or the animals are fed
hay in the barn lot or barn, then you have some really good stuff to
add to your garden.
Another thing to test in your garden soil is the acidity or the Ph of
your garden. To lower your acid level of your garden soil, you need to
raise the Ph level of your garden. If you think of it from a scale of 4 to
8, 4 would be the most sour thing you have ever tasted in your life,
and 8 would be the sweetest. Now some plants like it sweeter than
other plants. Sounds like a difficult thing to accomplish since you will
have many kinds of plants in your garden. To make your garden
sweeter than it is, add some lime to it. To make it more sour, add a
high nitrogen fertilizer. A good rule of thumb for most of your
vegetables will be from 6 1/2 to 7 on your sweetness scale. We
generally do our lime in the late fall after everything is done, when we
need to lime. Obviously putting lime on the garden where there is
going to be corn, which needs nitrogen in the fertilizer will have a
cancelling out effect. This timing of our liming helps us prevent this
from happening to a degree.
The best way to start out is to test your garden soil and see where
you are at. You can have it tested or you can get a simple do it
yourself kit and test your own soil. I would test it in several different
locations in the garden to get a more accurate read of your overall soil
acidity.
Epsom salt mixed in the garden soil in the spring has marvelous
benefits to your plants. It is a mineral and not actually a salt. It is
actually magnesium sulfate. This is a mineral that the plants need for
strong roots. It is a super vitamin for your garden.
but give the roots of your plants a chance to breathe and not be
drowned. Clay is tightly packed soil that doesn't drain very fast at all.
Sand on the other hand, is loosely packed and drains too fast. If you
can keep the water and nutrients to sand though, it is really hard to
beat.
Loam is what you need as your soil. Loam is basically 40 percent
sand, 40 percent humus, and 20 percent clay. Unless you are going
to replace your soil in your garden, you will have to doctor up your
current soil to get it as close to perfect as you can get it. Within
economic reason that is. How do you do this you may ask? Organic
material added to your soils will improve the downfalls of both clay and
sandy soils. Please see our article on composting. There is no reason
to burn your leaves in the fall or have them raked to the curb to be
hauled away. Same goes for your grass clippings. If you have access
to a farm where there is straw used as bedding, or the animals are fed
hay in the barn lot or barn, then you have some really good stuff to
add to your garden.
Another thing to test in your garden soil is the acidity or the Ph of
your garden. To lower your acid level of your garden soil, you need to
raise the Ph level of your garden. If you think of it from a scale of 4 to
8, 4 would be the most sour thing you have ever tasted in your life,
and 8 would be the sweetest. Now some plants like it sweeter than
other plants. Sounds like a difficult thing to accomplish since you will
have many kinds of plants in your garden. To make your garden
sweeter than it is, add some lime to it. To make it more sour, add a
high nitrogen fertilizer. A good rule of thumb for most of your
vegetables will be from 6 1/2 to 7 on your sweetness scale. We
generally do our lime in the late fall after everything is done, when we
need to lime. Obviously putting lime on the garden where there is
going to be corn, which needs nitrogen in the fertilizer will have a
cancelling out effect. This timing of our liming helps us prevent this
from happening to a degree.
The best way to start out is to test your garden soil and see where
you are at. You can have it tested or you can get a simple do it
yourself kit and test your own soil. I would test it in several different
locations in the garden to get a more accurate read of your overall soil
acidity.
Epsom salt mixed in the garden soil in the spring has marvelous
benefits to your plants. It is a mineral and not actually a salt. It is
actually magnesium sulfate. This is a mineral that the plants need for
strong roots. It is a super vitamin for your garden.