Healthy Soil For A Healthy You

Soil is composed of eroded rock, minerals, decayed animal or plant materials and other organic elements. All of this takes a long time to develop, but could be destroyed by our action or negligence in just one season.Plants can acquire nutrients from the soil using their roots and convert them to usable resources to grow new roots, leaves and flowers.All gardeners need to be custodians of the soil, taking the time to replace food as well as other elements as they are used. Since our soil is so essential we must treat it like we want to be treated, not like dirt.

Contributing organic matter regularly may perhaps be one of the most essential things we can do. Adding compost, cover crops and animal manure can accomplish numerous things:
+increases the soil’s capacity to hold nutrients.
+makes nourishment available to plants spanning a longer period of time.
+lessen the quantity of nutrients lost by erosion or leaching.
+provides micro-nutrientswhich are essental to plants in small amounts.
+release nutrients presently in the soil by increasing the activity of valuable microorganisms.
+increases the water-holding capability for sandy soils.
+increase the drainage of clay soils.
+saves money.

Don’t use fertilizer on lawns until we have a good soaking rain, and for the finest, safest, long-lasting outcomes use organic fertilizers. The soaked soil applies the nutrients into a solution and assists in distributing the nutrients to the plant roots to be absorbed.

The ability of soil to drain water is very important. However when you read phrases such as “plant in well-drained soil” or “does not like soaked feet”, they are referring to the plant’s requirement for air. The roots of plants need oxygen and any soil that is waterlogged is going to be lacking oxygen.

Many plants will tolerate high moisture-conditions throughout the developing season, however when the plants are dormant similar conditions may possibly kill them. By enhancing the drainage the plant would have a more suitable growing environment.

One other issue is soil becoming compressed by tractors and some other equipment or simply just by tilling it year after year. You will discover soil compaction in the majority of soils, from gardens to farm fields.

Tilling the soil when it is too wet will clump and damage the structure of the soil. This problem takes a long period of time to restore it back to health. To tell if the soil is too wet obtain a handful and squeeze it, if it crumbles in your hand then it is all set to till but if it clumps then it’s too wet. Some individuals now think that tilling at all isn’t beneficial to the structure of the soil. It exposes the beneficial microorganisms to the environment and they are destroyed.

However, gardeners may question whether it is better to till the garden in the fall or spring. Tilling the soil in the fall has benefits over springtime. When spring arrives it allows for earlier planting because the basic soil preparation is complete. Tilling in the fall enables a lot of organic matter to be converted into the soil and begin decomposing because the microbes are active presently.

An excellent way to obtain organic matter is the fall leaves. Try tilling a dense layer of leaves in to the soil this fall and by spring it will have decomposed.

Sowing a cover crop, like winter rye, is very beneficial by adding valuable nutrients and organic matter when tilled into the soil the following spring. Fall tilling will disrupt the bad insects, diseases and weeds, reducing their population.

Fall is a good time to test your soil and should be done every couple of years. In conclusion, doing all the previous steps should be done the organic gardening way. It’s back to basic.