Whenever we think about planting trees, the first two things that pop into our mind are is-plant and soil. Soil consisting- of water, minerals, organics, gas, etc., plays an essential role in gardening. Soil is the basement of your garden. So how beautiful your garden looks will depend upon soil making.
Also, the support your plant root needs, such as nutrients, watering, and air, comes from the soil. As a gardener, you should know the basics about soil regarding your garden improvement. The following topic will help you to understand those facts about the earth that you might find helpful for your garden.
Key Takeaways
- Your backyard or front yard can be a good choice for your garden location. Whichever location you choose should have enough sunlight.
- Sandy and loamy will be good choices for the fruit & flower garden. And for vegetable gardens, loamy soil will be the best fit.
- Some notable methods to test your garden soil are- The percolation test, worm test, squeeze test, ball test, jar test, and pH test. You need to clean up the place and be careful about water drainage.
- Mulching, using organic soil, manure, and compost are four simple ways to enrich your garden soil before you are ready to seed!
How To Prepare Soil For Garden
Your plants are ready to fit in the pot or garden bed! We are going to discuss the steps below that are substantial for soil preparation:
Choose your garden location
The location you are selecting for planting is essential to preparing the soil. Your backyard or front yard can be a good choice in that case. No matter what, choose a place where you can get proper sunlight for your garden. Especially from fruits and vegetables, you must be more careful about the daylight. Small, medium, or large- whichever your garden size will be, always avoid choosing a shady place.
Notice another thing while choosing your garden area is the only big tree nearby. The enlarged root of that tree might damage your garden bed after plantation.
Type of garden you want to grow
Before you purchase or collect soil, you must decide what garden you will grow. The reason behind that is- different grounds are best for other gardening. Mainly there are three types of soil that you may find. Those are- Sandy Soil, Clay Soil, and Loamy Soil.
Which fruit, vegetables, or flowers do you want to grow initially? Sandy and loamy will be good choices for the fruit & flower garden. Then comes the vegetable garden. Loamy soil will be the best fit for your vegetable garden. But you can still grow vegetables in other soil types.
Test your Soil
If soil testing also takes a lot of effort and time, my answer will be NO. Because there are many ways to test your soil, you have to choose which way you want to do that.
Percolation test, worm test, squeeze test, ball test, jar test, and pH test- these are some notable methods to test your garden soil. I want to explain some of them so you can find your preferred one.
You can do a Percolation test to examine the soaking ability of the soil to understand the water drainage. Another way is to do a worm test by digging up the place where you find a mud hole, looking for worms, and counting them. Three to five is the range of numbers, meaning your soil is fertile enough. Again, the squeezing test is also easy to do, where you can quickly determine your soil type. All you need to do is to collect a fistful of soil from your garden and check them out to know the soil category. Then squeeze the soil and inspect the condition of the soil. If your soil falls apart and seems like it is not staying long in your hand, then that dusty-looking soil is sand. Next, the one which remains smooth and sticky is the clay one. After that comes another one which might stay rough and need to poke to fall apart. That one is called loam soil. Almost everyone has heard about the name of this soil test, a pH test. A pH test is necessary if you want to be aware of your plant growth! You will find the pH test kits at any garden store. Also, you need to follow the instructions in your test kit. You should also know that pH levels differ from plant to plant. So, before you go for a test, research your plant’s pH level and see whether it meets the requirement.
Whichever test you take, ensure that you have examined your soil correctly, and after the test, you need to solve the issues of your garden soil if you find any.
Clean up the place
If you have completed the steps mentioned above, it is time to make your garden place neat and clean. Remove all the dead leaves, sticks, grasses, pebbles, and weeds from your garden area. Use these gardening tools while cleaning up the place- Shovel, saw, rake and bucket. This a small reminder for you to wear your hand gloves during work!
Careful about water drainage
Due to heavy rainfall, your garden might get waterlogged. So, to eliminate this issue, you must select a garden area where the soil will be suitable enough to support your garden.
Also, you must loosen the soil so the roots can reach deep.
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Enrich your garden soil
There are four simple ways to enrich your garden soil before you are ready to seed! Those are- mulching, using organic soil, manure, and compost.
Mulching:
Mulching is best for a vegetable garden. Mulching is a process of using dry ingredients on your garden bed, such as sawdust, straw, leaves, stones, and crop residues, to increase the nutrition of your soil. The fun fact is you can mulch both before or after planting!
Using organic soil:
Organic soil is a soil booster where the number of organic components like- dead plants, animals, and other nutrients amounts is higher than the soil.
Manure:
Manure is very popular for fertilizing your garden. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, these three primary nutrients and other micronutrients are available in waste. Goat, sheep, chicken, cow, and horse manure help grow vegetable gardens.
Compost:
Compost another fertilizer to improve the condition of your soil. It keeps your garden moist and nutritious.
Note one more thing: you should never use over fertilizer because it may harm your Soilsoil’s health.
FAQs
Yes, you can do that. You can mix your new soil with your old one with the help of hand tools. Also, clean up the other unnecessary stuff like sticks, dead leaves, pebbles, etc.
Lack of Moisture, poor growth of grass, and compacted soil are signs of unhealthy soil.
The fall season is the time to test your soil so that you can fix your ground if you find any issues. But you can check the pH balance and nutrients every 3 to 5 years.
Put some organic material and compost in your soil and mix them properly. It will help your soil to make better plants.
Final Words
Gardening as a hobby is something influential we have been familiar with since childhood. But if you want to visualize your perfect garden, you need to take some steps before that, which we have already discussed. It is like preparing your plates before you go for dinner!
So, preparing your soil before you go gardening is a must. Beginners might find it difficult, but once you start practicing, you will get accustomed to both soil and gardening simultaneously.
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