Lush Garden Secrets

Gardening Tips: Types of Soil

Lush Garden Secrets – Gardening Tips: Types of Soil Dirt is actually not the correct term to describe that complex growing media that plants need to…well…grow.

Soil is composed of bacteria and microorganisms that help decompose organic matter into nutrients that enrich the soil. As gardeners will tell some soils are better than others for growing various different types of plants. Depending on your conditions, your garden soil might need some help.

Clay soil is known as heavy soil. When wet its particles clump together making it impervious to both water and plants. When clay soil becomes dry it stays hard and cracks. Consequently, clay soil delights in air and the soil needs to be loosened.

Most gardeners will add peat moss or humus to their clay soil in order to prevent the particles from sticking together and will allow water to drain through it. Sandy soils are composed of the largest particles found in soils.

Sandy soil has such excellent drainage that often its problem is an inability to retain moisture for good plant growth. Again, humus or peat moss can remedy this situation.

A silt soil is generally a good growing soil since its particles are in sizes between clay and sand. Loam soil is usually excellent for plants. It is open, retains moisture well and has a good structure. Loam is the gardener’s joy.

Other types of growing soil can be purchased online or at your local garden center. Humus is composted topsoil. It is rich with decomposed organic matter and is sold much like regular topsoil. Generally, humus can be purchased as peat humus or pine bark humus.

The peat humus variety is mostly comprised of decomposed reed-sedge. Pine bark humus comes from decomposed pine bark. Humus is used to build up the soil structure for containers, lawns, and flowerbeds.

Potting soil is sold for ready use. Also known as houseplant soil, it is perfect for indoor plants and for starting plants from seed. Potting soil is a compound of both organic and inorganic materials with such ingredients as compost, peat moss, sand, and vermiculite.

The top soil is rich with a large quantity of organic composition. Most gardeners turn to packaged topsoil from one time to another to improve the quality of their garden soil. It can be purchased sterile or in its natural form containing microorganisms.

Soilless mixes are sold for use in container or tub gardens. These have been sterilized so there is no likelihood of weeds. This growing medium retains water and nutrients extremely well.

These are most of the basics when it comes to soil. There are more soil conditioners and additives on the market but you will need to know what your garden soil needs for plants to thrive.

In some cases, a soil test for pH levels is ideal for determining the components of your garden soil. There are test kits available. Check online or at your local garden center.

Gardening Tips: Starting with A New
Garden

It’s that time of the year again where you might feel like you could really try to start your own garden again. Whether your heart lies with growing vegetables, flowers, or just designing and maintaining a gorgeous garden you have to start somewhere.

There is nothing more fulfilling than growing your plants and vegetables from seed especially if you are interested in starting an organic garden.

Organic seeds for both plants and vegetables or fruits are widely available nowadays and there are always people who would gladly swap seeds.

Giving your plants the right start is imperative when it comes to growing strong plants and sowing and growing from seed is an art in itself. It will take a bit more work and determination but seeing a plant develop in its own time is an educational and exciting thing to witness.

Growing indoors in heated propagators sold in any garden center or just on the window sill can be done all year round.

Growing outdoors is where the true challenge lies. Be prepared to guard your young plant against pests such as slugs and follow these steps to a successful garden.

Start by forking over the soil of the chosen site where you wish to start your garden a few times before you actually start sowing. This is done to encourage the growth of weeds before you sow so that you can successfully hoe off the weed seedlings.

The traditional time to start this process would be February or March. Shortly before you start sowing all the weeds must have been removed.

Pick a dry day and make sure that the soil that you will be working with is not wet. Scatter fertilizer suitable for the type of garden that you are preparing over the ground. This could be organic compost suitable for vegetables for example.

Your garden center will be able to help you find the best fertilizer for your plot or garden. After this process the ground must be raked over and over again till it is completely level, to make sowing easier.

Early in the season the soil might still be fairly damp and cold. If this is the case it might be wise to first cover the prepared soil with sheets of plastic for a few weeks or so, till you are satisfied that the weather has made a change for the better and there will be no more spells of frost.

The plastic will help warm the soil and the top layer of the soil will dry out a bit, which will make sowing a lot easier when you can start. If you cannot wait it might be an idea to construct a tunnel of plastic with plastic piping, to sow and grow seedlings under.

Regards, Coyalita

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