Healthy soil is the backbone of every successful garden
Soil represents a complex ecosystem, that with time and balance will provide your garden with everything needed to thrive. Healthy soil can not only provide required nutrients, it can help minimize pests, promote root growth, and provide a habitat for thousands (if not hundreds of thousands of microorganisms). There are many great books are dedicated to soil science, and it won’t be possible to sum them up in one post, but below are some soil tips we found helpful or wish we knew when we started our garden.
Do a soil test - one thing we didn’t do as new gardeners that we wish we had was test our soil before ever planting in it. We used raised beds, since our soil was impossible to amend, so we controlled the ingredients we added - but even so, testing the soil we filled our beds with would’ve helped us
a) establish a baseline for future
b) understand what we were working with and adjust plans accordingly
You can purchase soil tests online, and/or partner with your local extension program to help understand your results and how to amend the soil, if needed.
Buy in bulk - if you can find a reputable local distributor that offers organic garden soil, you will not only save money, but you will avoid throwing away a ton of plastic.
Don’t forget the compost - when we started our garden, we used a mix of 50% organic soil and 50% compost. Every fall, we add 1-2 inches of compost to each of our garden beds to replenish spent nutrients.
No peat please - you can learn about the negative environmental consequences of peat harvesting, and sustainable swaps in this article.
Use no till methods - avoid tilling or turning over your soil. The less you disrupt your soil, the better. Tilling can not only affect the complex network of fungal and bacterial life under the soil surface, it can also cause soil to compact, increasing runoff.
Avoid pesticides and fertilizers - if your soil is optimally healthy, you’ll never need either of these. Pesticides and fertilizers can not only destroy the beneficial microorganisms in your soil, they can cause runoff that poses risks to wildlife habitat and can impact drinking water.
Mulch, mulch, and more mulch - keeping your soil covered by 1-2 inches of mulch at all times will minimize weed burden and help to maintain the complex and necessary ecosystem beneath the soil surface. Mulching can help reduce evaporation, and is an absolute necessity in a dry environment for water conservation. Mulch will help keep soil temperatures and roots warm; if you live in a cooler climate, this is especially important in spring and fall. There are a few methods you can use to keep your soil covered:
use a cover crop - cover crops are planted to maintain soil health and integrity during the fall/winter/early spring
use alfalfa-free straw - straw mulch is a particularly beneficial in vegetable gardens, where it will feed helpful bacteria.
use wood chips or shavings - when we started gardening, we used wood chips as mulch for all of our garden beds as we got a glut of it from Chipdrop.com for free. We’ve since transitioned to straw for our vegetable garden, but use whatever you have readily on hand. Be sure to get wood chips that are chemical and dye free if purchasing from a pet supply or big box store.
Use cardboard or fabric - in the wintertime, we have used cardboard boxes to cover our soil. Cardboard is free and widely available, making it a great solution to winterizing garden beds.
Don’t pull those plants - at the end of the season, rather than pulling out every plant by its roots to put the garden to bed, cut them off at the base instead. Leaving the root structure in tact will help to feed the soil over the winter.
These are just a few tips - below are links to some of our favorite soil books.