How to Improve the Quality of the Soil

Of course, the first step to making your soil healthier is to know what condition it is in. While most gardening or nursery centers will test your soil for you, the process requires only a simple, inexpensive soil testing kit, and can easily be done right out in your garden. If your enjoy gardening, then pick up a soil testing kit and become a DIY soil agent! That testing kit will measure the pH balance of your dirt, which stands for “potential Hydrogen,” and will let you know if there is a proper balance on the alkaline/acidity spectrum. If acidity is high, you will want to add calcium to the soil, in the form of lime. The key to producing healthy soil is to add large amounts of compost, which naturally brings pH into balance by moderating acids and boosting alkaline levels.

There’s more to high quality soil than pH balance. You also need soil that will hold some moisture, but not too much. In other words, sand is not good growing soil because water drains through it quickly before plants can absorb the moisture they need. At the other extreme, soil that is composed of too much clay will hold water against plant roots and will eventually produce rot, mold, or other conditions which threaten plants. If you have soil at either end of the range, the second step is to turn over the top 6 to 8 inches of soil and add to it a large dose of compost, mulch, and rich, dark, top soil. Turn, mix, and stir the soil until a new, healthy bed has been produced. Recheck the pH balance, and take measures to fix it, if needed.

The third step is to optimize the biology of the soil. Healthy soil is jam-packed with living organisms that affect plant growth. Good bacteria break down soil elements to provide good nutrition to plants. Therefore, it is wise to add organic elements that contain large amounts or living organisms. Quality manure from cattle, horses or rabbits contain high amounts of good bacteria. Find local, inexpensive sources of these manures and start by adding a little bit at a time to the soil, and see how plants respond. As the farmer or animal raiser you get the manure from what their suggestions are. In all likelihood, they use the manure on their own garden and will be a great source of helpful advice.

Compost is essential to soil health, so the fourth step is to have a quality compost pile going at all times. See our guides on compost for all of the details. The wonderful thing about compost is that it takes things normally thought of as waste – dead leaves, flower clipping and pruning material, and kitchen vegetable scraps – and turns them into the very life-blood of your garden. Savvy gardeners realize that nothing organic is ever waste, but can always be used to grow the next generation of flowers, shrubs, vegetables, or herbs.

The final step is to add mulch or ground cover around trees and shrubs that need higher water content. Mulch holds in moisture, so the roots of the plant have more opportunity to absorb it. Ground cover plants keep the hot sun off soil, which prevents the dirt from drying out before the larger shrubs and trees can make use of the water.

Improving the soil will lead to healthier more productive plants. It requires some trial and error, but by the end of the first or second gardening season, you’ll feel like a soil quality professional!

Understanding the Basics of Composting

Adding compost to flower and vegetable gardens has been growing in popularity as more gardeners choose natural techniques in their efforts to cultivate a healthier, more productive garden while being environmentally responsible. Making compost out of organic matter is an ancient practice, but with the rise of chemical fertilizers several decades ago, the practice declined. Now, decades later, the benefits of composting are being rediscovered.

Briefly put, composting is the process through which organic matter is returned to a soil-like state through decomposition. The process is aided by insects, earthworms, fungi, bacteria, and other beneficial microorganisms. Compost is rich in nutrients, improves soil structure, aeration, the healthy pH balance of the soil, water retention, and soil fertility. It contributes to healthy root development in plants, and provides essential nutritional value for flower and fruit production.

If you have made the decision to start composting, these basic steps will put you well on your way to a healthier garden and a more eco-friendly lifestyle.

First of all, choose the spot to have your composting pile. Employing an unused corner of the yard is popular, out of direct sunlight, and perhaps kept from view by a large bush or section of decorative fencing. Many gardeners build a 2’x4’ or 4’x4’ composting pen to keep it tidy, but that’s not essential.

Secondly, combine the right materials for compost. A good mix includes about 10 to 20 parts brown plant material such as dead leaves, which is high in carbon, and one part green material, like grass clippings and garden prunings, which is high in nitrogen. Other high carbon “browns” include straw, shredded twigs, pine needles, shredded newspaper, dead plants that do not show disease, and sawdust from untreated wood. Other nitrogen-rich “greens” include green weeds, alfalfa, clover, manure, and vegetable scraps from the kitchen.

The third step is to keep the composting material moist, but not soggy. A good time to begin the pile is when you rake leaves in the spring or fall. Mix in the first/last grass clippings of the year, saturate the pile thoroughly, turning the material several times and adding more water. After that, do not water unless insufficient rain occurs. If it’s a particularly raining spring, covering the pile during rains might be needed.

Fourthly, decomposition requires air, so turn the pile once a month or so, perhaps when you add more grass clippings. Stirring it up gets oxygen into the center of the pile where it will aid the processes that are creating compost. The compost is ready to use when it is dark in color and crumbles easily, and when none of the original materials are identifiable. A good test is to seal a small amount of it in a bag for 24 hours. If the compost smells earthy but not unpleasant, it is good to go!

Many gardeners are using compost bins, a fantastic way to produce usable compost quickly. They come in several styles that allow you to add material and water and easily turn the bin for proper mixing and aeration. New composters and veterans alike will want to consider these handy, effective units that produce high quality compost. Whether you use a simple pile, build a pen, or purchase a composting bin, your plants will benefit immensely from this organic, nutrient-rich plant food.

Composting bins:

Mantis 4000-00-02 ComposT-Twin Composting Bin

Scotts 100164 Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Compost Bin

Bosmere K767 Garden Compost Bin 11-Cubic Foot Capacity

Achla CMP-05 Spinning Horizontal Composter

Composting Bin: Extendable

Garden Composter

Earthmaker Aerobic Composter, 120 Gallon

Preparing Organic Compost by Yourself

If you really want to do a favor to the environment through your garden then organic composting might just be the right option for you to consider. You are cutting down the amount of waste that would go at a landfill or just dump by putting it into a compost pile in your front or backyard. This can be said as a process that has been followed by the people for utilizing waste materials for a good cause for quite a while now. Your garden soil will also be benefitted if you add organic compost in it because plants require sufficient amount of essential nutrients for the proper growth and with organic compost added to you garden soil, you would make sure that you are providing sufficient amount of nutrients to your garden plants for the proper and healthy growth. You can prepare compost on your own with waste found around your yard, homes, kitchens, etc. Let me tell you, how can prepare organic compost by yourself.

You know the places where to get the waste from, compost is simply a mixture or combination of different waste products. Choose a specific area as a storage place for all the compost you gather up. A compost tumbler can be bought from the market or with the help of wooden pallets you can make a bin of your own. Blood meal, alfalfa meal, and aged manure would be the most appropriate waste materials to add in your compost pile because all these things are high on nitrogen. Apart from these, leaves, grass clippings, coffee grounds, shredded newspaper, and vegetables would be some other good organic items to add in your compost pile.

There should be many things available when the process of compost pile making is underway. Grass might start smelling bad so make sure to put the green grass clippings together with brown material. Animal products like their food or waste and fats needs to be avoided since pests get attracted this way which can promote disease contamination in the compost pile. Plants that have been sprayed with herbicides or pesticides should be avoided as well. Lastly, your wooden pallet bin or the compost tumbler should be placed somewhere exposed to the sunlight in order for the decomposing process to be good and effective, even in the times of winters as well.

It would ask for a few months before the pile gets ready, so once your compost is prepared, give your plant soil or garden some good nutritious enrichment spreading the compost all over your garden soil.

Above mentioned were some simple steps for preparing organic compost by yourself.

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Espoma Organic Traditions Compost Bio-Excelerator – 4 lb Bag #BE4

The Complete Compost Gardening Guide: Banner batches, grow heaps, comforter compost, and other amazing techniques for saving time and money, and producing … most flavorful, nutritous vegetables ever.

Maintaining Compost In Your Backyard

Many people who have a garden will usually have a large amount of organic waste in the backyard.  This could be anything from dead plants to grass clippings.  Unfortunately, many people waste money by hauling them off to the landfill.  All these organic waste that’s being hauled off are good compost that can be used for the garden.

If you have a lot of organic waste laying around and have a garden, these waste can be the perfect fertilizer for your plants.  As a matter of fact, these organic waste are what you buy at the garden center too. The only difference is that the organic waste has been decomposing and  turn into top grade fertilizer.  If you have a large garden, making your own compost can be cost saving.

Most people tend not to save any of the organic waste around the house because of the smell and disturbing images to ones mind.  However, if you maintain it correctly, you should be able to product great compost without producing any offensive odor.

You will want to choose a place where the waste is out of sight.  This can be behind the shrubs or a shed.  Avoid having a really deep pile of compost since the deeper sections of the compost won’t be exposed to anything that is requires for the process to work.  Instead, spread the organic waste over a large area. If you have limited space, you can spread them in different part of the yard.

Once you have a pile of organic waste, you should moisten the whole pile.  This will encourage the process of composting.  Be sure to chop every element in the pile into small pieces as much as possible.  Every week or so, you will want to aerate the pile.  You can use a shovel to mix the pile together or use an aeration tool.  Doing this will increase the oxygen flow to each part of the pile.

In a few months, you should have top grade fertilizer for your garden.  You can use them throughout the year as long as you’re growing something in the garden.  making your own compost will take some work, but the end result will be worth it.