Soil is the foundation of any growth but not all gardens come with the best soil to begin with. Sandy soil or poor quality builders soil is the most common type of bad soil but if you have particularly boggy land, you should first drain it before you do anything else.
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Improving your soil is really important if you want to grow vegetables or have a lush garden. However, this isn’t a short term deal. Once you have improved the soil for your plants you will need to keep it in good condition. Fortunately, maintaining good soil is much easier and a little lighter on the purse strings too!
Increase the Amount of Nitrogen
Nitrogen is the most important thing for growth so it is the first place to start. Many fertilizers are nitrogen rich and are quite easy to spread by mixing with water and spraying around your garden. You can premix or you can buy ready done, but either way, you can store your fertilizer in a storage tank and use it when you need. Have a look at fertilizerdealer.com for various sizes.
Another way to increase the nitrogen in your soil is to spread leaf mold around your garden. If your soil is currently bare, raking in some leaf mold will jump start the nitrogen production but spreading some seeds around will help too. Start with some simple vegetables and herbs and then work up to bigger things. The more you start to grow, the better your soil will hold together and the more you will be able to grow!
Employ Worms and Increase Diversity
Worms might be wriggly and weird but they are excellent news in your garden. They are fast-track compost makers and, as they create pathways, they are also perfect for aerating your soil. Aeration is really important as it increases the amount of oxygen available for your plants and increases their growth too.
In fact, the greater the diversity you can achieve in your garden, the better your soil will be. Different plants bring different things to a garden and many work best when they are planted together. Companion planting is an ideal route to go and it works brilliantly with vegetable gardening.
Recycle Garden Waste
Once your garden has started to grow and thrive, it will be much easier to maintain the quality of soil. By making your own compost, you can also control where the most fertile soil is and how you maintain your garden. Tidying up and making compost all in one go is a win-win for you and your garden!
Making compost is very simple. All you need to have is a compost bin and then you can empty all your garden and even kitchen waste into it. Make sure that you turn the compost every so often to get some more air in there and encourage worms to come and play too.
The better your soil is, the more likely your plants are to survive and thrive. So get going!
She has a B.S.Ed. in Secondary Education/English and a Spanish Minor. In addition, she holds a Certificates in Natural Health and Herbology from accredited programs. She pursued these natural wellness certifications due to her love for herb gardening.
Despite freelancing to make a living, her love is "all things home."
Deborah grew up in a family that grew a large vegetable garden and a fruit orchard, helping her parents pull weeds and can home-grown foods as part of her childhood. In fact, she had no idea that she could purchase veggies and fruits in pre-packed steel cans until she went to college and made a food run.
Today, she lives in Bertie County, North Carolina, an agricultural rural area with more chickens than people. She lives with her husband and two rescue pets a sweet toy fox terrier and a cat who showed up one day and moved into the house. Together, they enjoy DIY projects, furniture refinishing, gardening, and canning.
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