Garden soil is made of natural topsoil or sand blended with relatively inexpensive, bulky organic material. Ingredients like composted bark from mill operations, used mushroom compost, and composted cow or chicken manure are commonly blended into garden soil mixes. The coarse organic matter in garden soil improves the water holding capacity of sandy soils and loosens the texture of heavy clay soils for better root development in garden beds. Plants draw the nutrients they need to grow from the soil.
Those nutrients usually need to be replenished every so often for the healthiest growth, no matter which type of soil you have. This is especially true for the soil where you grow annual flowers and vegetables, which suck up a lot of nutrients to fuel their rapid growth. Luckily, it's easy and inexpensive to restore nutrition by adding high-quality compost and/or granular or liquid fertilizer products as needed.
If you're not sure if you need to add nutrients, a soil test is a quick way to check. To add nutrients and to replace organic matter as it breaks down, add 1-2 inches of compost to your garden beds in the fall. Then you'll be all set for spring and can just add a layer of mulch after cleaning up and planting your beds for the new growing season.
I always see things on how to work with sandy, silty, or clay soils, practically nothing on peat soils. I moved to an area this last Fall, that had a lot of glacier activity and is a meadow or grass land now. We would like to grow a garden, but we have black peat soil for about 14 feet down. I used a home soil test and found no nitrogen in the soil. There is some phosphorus and a small amount of potassium.
What should we do to our soil to be able to grow a vegetable garden and fruit trees? Unlike sandy soil, clay soil holds moisture well—sometimes too well. Fine soil particles stick together, allowing little room for drainage or for air to reach plant roots. The solution is to break up the soil and add lots of organic matter such as compost, shredded leaves, peat moss and gypsum over time. The best way to improve soil texture is by adding organic material, such as compost or peat moss. Decaying organic matter helps sandy soil by retaining water that would otherwise drain away.
And it corrects clay soil by making it looser, so air, water, and roots all can penetrate. Plus, in all soils it encourages beneficial microbial activity and provides nutritional benefits. Working wet soil will pack soil particles tightly, leaving less room for water and air to penetrate.
Compacted soil also makes it more difficult for plant roots and gardening equipment to move through the soil. The compression forms tight clumps of soil that become hard as rocks upon drying and are difficult to break up. In addition to making it difficult for plants to grow, compacted soils also tend to drain more slowly, in turn delaying the ability to work the soil after the next rainfall. Compaction is most likely to occur with heavier soils like clay and loam, but when heavy equipment is used, sandy soils can become compacted. These are soil particles that are packed closely together.
The problem may be compounded by events that have happened to the soil over the course of years. The pore spaces are reduced to the point that air and water cannot move freely and plant roots cannot grow easily into the surrounding soil. The soil could remain overly wet longer than is healthy for the plants growing there. Also sprinkling with organic compost and/or Gypsum can help over time. For smaller areas lightly work in organic materials and amend with Gypsum. Earthworms are another way to help improve soil compaction over time.
Add worms to garden beds along with organic materials, and the worms will eat their way through compacted soils, leaving behind burrows and droppings to aerate and fertilize the ground. Compost is a great and fast way to get more organic matter into your soil. Using hand tools, work leaves, mulch or other organic materials into the top several inches of the soil.
Organic matter is softer than mineral matter, and it helps increase the amount of air and water space. In addition, it adds needed nutrients for plants to grow – and plant roots reduce compaction. Most new gardens don't have perfect growing conditions. Clay soil stays wet too long, but once dry it is difficult to moisten. It helps sandy soil retain more moisture, and opens the texture of tight clay soil for better drainage.
Compost is decomposed organic matter, and it is the best thing you use to improve the health of garden soil. No matter where you garden, it's worth improving the quality of the topsoil you've got. After all, plants rely on topsoil, the uppermost layer of the earth's surface, for water and necessary nutrients. The more organic matter it has, the darker the soil will look (like what you may see sold in bags or bulk as "black dirt").
This type of soil is very easy to dig in and support healthy plant growth. However, the type of soil in your yard may look very different. Depending on your region, it can vary from reddish clay to beige sandy soil.
Here's what you need to know about improving your topsoil. Chop over-wintered cover crops directly into spring soils a few weeks before planting. During the growing season, sow a quick-growing cover crop, such as buckwheat, to fill the gap between spring and fall crops. When it's time to plant, pull the buckwheat cover and use it as a mulch for fall garden beds. Good soil provides just the right space between its particles to hold air that plants will use.
Silty and heavy clay soils have small particles that are close together. Sandy soils have the opposite problem; their particles are too big and spaced out. The excessive amount of air in sandy soil leads to rapid decomposition of organic matter. Organic soil is rich in humus, the end result of decaying materials such as leaves, grass clippings and compost. Good organic garden soil is loose and fluffy — filled with air that plant roots need — and it has plenty of minerals essential for vigorous plant growth. It is alive with living organisms — from earthworms to fungi and bacteria — that help maintain the quality of the soil.
Proper pH is also an essential characteristic of healthy soil. If you have heavy clay soil, adding compost will allow it to drain more easily. The organic material will also make the soil looser, allowing plant roots to grow more easily underground. Organic matter in soil serves as food for earthworms, insects, bacteria and fungi-they transform it to soil nutrients and humus. Through this decomposition process, materials are made available as foods to growing plants.
In finely textured clay soils, organic material creates aggregates of the soil particles, improving drainage and making it easier to work. Earthworms are especially helpful in making and keeping soil porous and well draining, said Brewer. To improve the soil in garden beds, blend 3 inches of Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics® All Purpose In-Ground Soil into the top 6 inches of existing soil.
The aged compost it contains will help aerate even the hardest, rockiest soil, and encourage sandy soil to hold water longer. Your plants will love this soil so much that they'll deliver up to 2 times the harvest (vs. unfed plants) over the growing season. The consistency of your soil is a crucial part of gardening success. If it's compacted, then it's hard for water and air to reach the roots.
If it's too loose , then it won't hold water and your plants could dry out. Some gardeners recommend adding sand to amend clay soils, but numerous university extension experts advise against this, as adding too little can actually make the problem worse. In a garden bed, the best way to introduce organic material without digging , is to apply layers on top and let nature do the work for you. Simply pile your garden bed high with organic material – it can be wood chips, shredded paper, straw, chopped leaves, lawn clippings – whatever you can lay your hands on.
It might be slow, but the wait will give you time to get to know your land before you plant. About half of a healthy soil is made up of mineral particles like sand, silt and clay plus organic matter. That is the room for air and water movement around the mineral particles. Pore space is required in order to have a healthy environment for plant roots and beneficial microorganisms and earthworms to break down plant residue into organic matter. Heavy clay soils are quite dense, do not drain well and tend to be hard and crack when dry. Because there isn't much space between the clay particles, there usually isn't much organic matter or microbial life in the soil.
Plant roots have a hard time growing in the hard material. Bark, sawdust, manure, leaf mold, compost and peat moss are among the organic amendments commonly used to improve clay soil. Two or three inches of organic materials should be spread and rototilled, forked or dug into the top six or seven inches of your garden beds. Healthy soil typically is more than 40 percent pore space, with large pores that promote drainage and small pores which help store water.
This combination enables air and water to penetrate, promotes good drainage, and allows soil organisms to breathe and plant roots to grow. Machinery, foot traffic and pounding rain compact the soil and make life in the soil difficult. Compacted soils can flood and also be susceptible to drought, since water runs off rather than infiltrating. You can repair compacted soil by rebuilding its spongy structure. Topsoil is a good choice for filling up raised beds, repairing eroded spots, or filling in holes. When planting a new lawn or overseeding a patchy lawn, you can use a thin layer of topsoil to protect grass seeds as they sprout.
One thing you shouldn't use topsoil for is filling your containers. It won't drain as well as you need it to in a container, and it makes your pots very heavy. Stick with potting mix($7, The Home Depot) for containers, and use topsoil in garden beds.
Growing plants at the end of the season increases the amount of time that plants work their magic and convert sunlight into carbon-containing substances. Cover crop plant roots also create pores in the soil, biologically reducing compaction, and add to the organic portion of your soil. You can buy radish seeds and let them grow early in the season – nothing like large tap roots to naturally break up the soil! Or, plant them late, and leave them in place over the winter.
Farmers often cope with hardpan by using a chisel plow to cut and break up this dense layer of soil. Home gardeners can break up and mix the hardpan layer by "double digging" the soil. This involves removing 10 to 12 inches of topsoil, and then working organic matter into the 12-inch layer of material that lies below. If the hardpan layer is not too deep, you can use a digging fork to puncture it and open up passages for air and water. Top-dressing planting beds with several inches of compost will improve lightly compacted soils.
Earthworms and other soil fauna will gradually pull it down into the soil, loosening it and improving water-holding capacity. A 2- or 3-inch layer of shredded leaf mulch or wood chips will provide similar benefits. Rocky soils can't be cultivated and are usually very low in plant nutrients. In this situation the cheapest option may be to build garden beds on top of the existing soil.
This can be done by importing soil to the site or by using the No Dig gardening method. For starters, fall mulching gives you the upper hand on spring weeds. Pull weeds that do emerge in the spring early and quickly, when they are small and easy to manage. If not noxious–that is, not spreading vigorously by root or stem–I suggest laying them right back on the soil surface and covering them with from 2 to 4 inches of organic mulch.
Covering garden beds right from the start gives you the jump on garden weeds, while feeding the soil with organic material at the same time. One way to avoid hard soil is to prevent it from happening. Yearly applications of organic matter will help prevent the soil from becoming hard and compacted again. To keep soil softened, add organic material such as compost or animal manure into the soil each spring before planting time. Apply organic mulch, like hay, around plants and allow it to decompose and work its way down into the soil. The organic material will ensure the soil is softened year round.
To fix compacted soil, which is soil that has little to no air space, break it up to make it hospitable for your plants again. Start by shifting livestock, machinery, vehicles, and foot traffic away from the compacted area to give the soil a rest. If you use the compacted area for farming or gardening, move your plants somewhere else for at least 1 growing cycle.
Why Is My Garden Dirt So Hard Instead, plant a cover crop, like winter wheat or ryegrass, to allow the roots to break up the soil. For smaller, grassy areas that are compacted, use a small metal garden fork to poke holes in the soil so air, water, and roots can enter the area. However, when tackling a larger area, use a rototiller with an aeration attachment. For a large vegetable garden, another solution is to grow a cover crop at the end of the season, then mow and turn in the following spring before planting.
By mowing and turning the mowed tops in, the soil is additionally loosened. Cover crops could include annual ryegrass, winter wheat, winter rye, buckwheat, oilseed radishes and hairy vetch. Once you have realized your soil is compacted, there are several things to be done. Resist the urge to routinely roto-till or cultivate the garden. Instead, consider adding organic matter by using mulch or compost over the top of a flower bed or simply hand-spade it into the top 3 to 6 inches of soil. For a vegetable garden, put 2 inches of compost on the soil surface and till in and repeat for a total of 4 inches in a season.
