Alex Sanders https://www.gardenista.com 2m 474 #garden
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
If you’re thinking about starting a garden at your home next year, the first thing you’ll need to address is the foundation of your garden area, or the soil. Without soil that will naturally nurture whatever it is you’re planting, you can’t hope to have a successful yield in your garden. Knowing this, it’s vital that you take the time and give your soil the attention it deserves before you plant anything.
To help you see how this can be done, here are three ways to improve your soil before starting a garden.
Test Your Soil First
Before you can start making any positive changes to the soil of your garden, you first need to know exactly what you’re dealing with. To do this, you’ll need to test your soil.
When you run tests on your soil, you’ll get back information that will tell you what nutrients it’s lacking. Then, you can find a way to put these nutrients into your soil manually. Different soil will need different things. So to ensure that you’re not giving your soil something that it already has in spades, you’ll want to run these soil tests before you add anything to the soil. This way, you’ll be improving your soil in the most effective way possible.
Work On The Soil Texture
It’s not only what nutrients make up your soil that you need to be concerned with. You also want to ensure that your soil has the right texture for the growth of your desired plants.
For example, if your soil is too dense like clay, you might drown the roots of your plants and not get the yield you want. On the other hand, if your soil is too sandy, the roots of the plant can remain too dry because the moisture can have a hard time staying in one place to properly absorb. So if you see that your soil isn’t quite the right texture for what you’re trying to accomplish with your garden, make sure you add the right organic materials to get to the proper texture.
Add Your Choice Of Mulch
Adding mulch to your soil is a great way to get your garden ready for planting and for protecting the plants once they’re in the ground. Additionally, having mulch in your garden can help to keep the weeds at bay, can help the plants retain more moisture, and can help things stay light and airy.
Depending on what you’ve planted and the look that you want your garden to have, you can choose to mulch with things like wood chips, pine needles, leaves, and more.
If you have plans to start a garden, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you get your soil ready.
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