So you want to grow a garden. Gardening is a very popular past time and it’s great to be able to see tender young shoots sprouting out of the ground and know that someday soon you’ll be harvesting your own vegetables or plucking your own flowers. You don’t have to be a scientist to grow an awesome garden, but a little knowledge can go a long way to making your garden grow.
Know your soil
Before you sink your hands into the earth, get to know something about where your plants will actually be living-the soil. There are several different kinds of soil and you should know yours, specifically what’s in it and what you need to add to it to make it great; amending soil will help you grow tasty fruits and vegetables and fantastic flowers and it’s the secret to every garden greatness. A good starting point is to know exactly what soil is.
What is soil?
Soil is very basic, its’ relationship to plants is like our own relationship to the air around us-we can’t survive without it and when it’s not up to par, we suffer. The soil you’ll be planting in has been around for centuries, and it’s undergone many changes from the effects of weather, chemical processes, microbes, plants and people. You have to turn this older than old stuff into a medium where plants can grow and obtain water, air and the nutrients they need to thrive.
The main components of any soil are mineral and organic matter, water, air and living organisms, all in a state of constant change. The mineral fraction of soil includes sand, silt and clay in varying degrees. A tried and true way to estimate the proportion of each is what farmers have been doing since farming began: Grab a handful of moist soil and rub it between your thumb and forefinger to get "feel" of it.
A sandy soil is harsh and gritty and won’t hold together. A soil with a lot of clay can be squeezed into a smooth smear, and a silt loam makes a rough and broken smear. These are some very basic guidelines you should keep in mind when you give your soil the "farmer squeeze" test.
The valuable part of soil is its organic matter; a broad term that includes everything from living soil organisms to manure to leaves and stems. Organic matter is what makes your soil tick and gives it its own unique personality; it’s your starting point when you begin the process of amending your soil.
The most difficult soils to work with are sandy soils and soils with lots of clay in them. A sandy soil won’t hold onto the nutrients your plants need and because of its density, a clay soil will suffocate plants by not letting them sink their roots into the soil. Both of these soils can be worked with and amended, you just have to find out the proportions of each and work around them.
The makings of good soil
To find out more about your own soil, get a shovel and dig down into at least 3 feet. If you find a layer of dirt you can’t push the shovel through in the first two or three feet, the topsoil may not be deep enough to support all the plants you want to grow.
Structure
Ideal garden soil is crumbly, this is good because it means plant roots will be able to sink doen deep in search of nutrients and water.
Color
The color of your soil will tell you several things, like drainage, amount of organic matter and its general level of productivity. Brownish black and dark brown soils suggest a good supply of humus, this is the organic part of the soil formed by decomposition of plant and animal matter-you want a lot of this.
Red or yellow soil may indicate good drainage, but yellow can mean leaching and thus a low supply of nutrients.
White soil in a dry region may mean the soil is too salty for plants to thrive.
Texture
Soil texture is determined by the mineral fraction of sand, silt and clay. There is a simple test to determine your soil texture. Fill a quart jar about 2/3 full of water and add soil til the jar is almost full. Screw on the lid and shake it vigorously, then set it aside and let it settle. Sand, the heaviest particles, will sink to the bottom, but silt and clay will take several hours to settle out. In a few hours sand, silt and clay levels will be visible; you should then chart each of them on a piece of paper held up to the jar. Do this test in several areas of your garden. To get the best stratification in the water in your jar, use about 1 teaspoon of Calgon because it has a dispersing agent.
The best garden soil should be crumbly so that it can be easily penetrated by plant roots, and these pea-sized or smaller crumbs should be such that they aren’t easily destroyed by rain or irrigation water. This type of soil won’t crust and prevent seed germination, it’s easily worked, and allows water to penetrate quickly. You can get your soil up to this level by learning what type of soil you have and how to amend it to make it great. Remember it’s something you’ll have to work at over time.
To determine soil fertility, and take the guesswork out of exactly what your soil needs to grow great plants, have a professional soil test done. To find out who in your area does soil testing, contact your county agriculture extension agent. Some state univeristies will test soil free or for a nominal charge, and there are also private soil testing laboratories.
By applying this soil know-how to your garden, you’ll be on your way to growing great in no time.
