Healthy Soil Means a Healthy Garden

If you’re getting ready to go on a new garden venture, you need to prepare
your soil to ideally house your plants. The best thing you can do in the
soil preparation process is to reach the perfect mixture of sand, silt,
and clay. Preferably there would be 40 percent sand, 40 percent silt, and
20 percent clay. There are several tests used by experienced gardeners to
resolve if the soil has an acceptable composition. Primarily you can squeeze it in
your hand. If it doesn’t hold its shape and crumbles without any outside
force, your sand ratio is probably a little high. If you poke the
compressed ball with your finger and it doesn’t fall apart easily, your
soil contains too much clay.

If you’re still in the dark about the soil content, simply separate
each ingredient by using this simple method. Put a cup or two of dirt into
a jar of water. Shake the water up until the soil is suspended, then let
let it sit quietly until 3 layers are easily seen. the upper layer is
clay, the next is silt, and on the bottom is sand. You should be able to
figure out each component in your dirt, and act accordingly.

Upon the analyzation of your dirt’s content, if you think that it’s
low on a certain ingredient then you should definitely do something to fix
it. If dealing with too much silt or sand, it’s best to add some peat moss
or compost. If you’ve got too much clay, add a mixture of peat moss and
sand. Soaked peat serves as an aid for your ingredient to
spread throughout the mixture better. If you can’t seem to manage to attain a
proper composition, just take a trip to your local nursery. You should
be able to find some kind of product to aid you.

The water content of the soil is another important thing to consider when
preparing for your growing area. If your sowing area is at the bottom of an incline,
it will become too soggy and will dorwn your plants.
If this is the case, you should probably elevate your garden a few inches
(4 or 5) over the rest of the ground. This will result in drier soil
and less saturation.

Adding supplements to your soil is also a very important part of the process, as in most cases
urban soils have little to no nutrients already in them naturally. One to
two weeks prior to planting, you should add a good amount of fertilizer to
your plant area. Combine well and then leave it alone for a while. Once you
have done this, your soil will be completely ready for whatever seeds you
may plant in it.

Once your seeds are planted, you still want to pay attention to the soil.
For the first few weeks, your new seeds are seriously utilizing all the nutrients
around them to sprout into a real plant. If they run out of food, how are
they supposed to grow? About a week after planting, you should add the
same amount of fertilizer that you added before. After this you should
maintain your fertilization, but not as frequently. If you add a tiny bit every
couple of weeks, that should be plenty to keep your sowing area thriving.

Basically, the entire process of soil care can be compressed into just
several steps… ensure the makeup of the soil is satisfactory, make sure
you have proper drainage in your garden, add fertilizer before and after
planting, then fertilize on a regular schedule. Follow these simple
steps, and you’ll have a plethora of healthy plants in no time. And if you
still confused about any particular details, just go to your local garden center
and enquire there. Most of the employees will be more than happy to give
you advice.