Gardening and Soil Building Part 1

In gardening almost no one has the perfect soil, so most gardeners know of the need to amend their garden soil. One way is by adding organic matter to our garden beds. This article discusses some methods of doing so…

In gardening almost no one has the perfect soil, so most gardeners know of the need to amend their garden soil. One way is by adding organic matter to our garden beds.

A good method to add organic material to your soil when gardening is by simply keeping a layer of mulch around your plants. Mulching not only helps conserve water, keep down weeds, and keep the roots cool, for those plants that need it in the summer heat, it also is constantly being broken down and added to the soil. You will find that you will have to keep adding material to your mulch, usually on a yearly basis. This can be one of your yearly spring tasks. Those who live in warmer and damper climates may find they must add to the mulch more often to maintain the depth they want.

Extending this idea, we come to sheet composting which is much like mulching around your plants, although the depth of the sheet may not be as deep as the mulch around some plants. Sheet composting is like what you get when trees lose their leaves in the fall or plants die and organic material is layered on the ground to be decomposed and added to the soil. Farmers use this method when spreading manure from barns and paddocks upon their fields. This builds nutrients in the soil for the next growing, or gardening, season.

When vegetable gardening, some gardeners may add organic material between rows of plants. It will not only add nutrients to the soil and build the soil but it will help keep weeds down if applied thickly enough. (Not to mention keep down the mud after a rain.) A vegetable gardener more often does this than a flower gardener as a flower garden does not usually have its flowers in set rows.

Later we will discuss more aspects of building your gardening soil.