Garden Wisdom Blog — category: Soil Talk
Mixing Soil from Scratch
category: Articles and Instructions category: Soil Talk
In many cases pre-packaged soil from the garden centre may serve its purpose when filling containers or raised beds. It is usually manufactured in massive amounts by mixing various raw ingredients before bagging. Here is our container soil recipe.
Soil Amendments
category: Articles and Instructions category: Garden Resources category: Soil Talk
Most potting soils have enough nutrients that fertilizers are not necessary for seedlings until they are transplanted to the garden. Generally speaking, you want the fertilizer to go beneath each transplant, but not in direct contact with its roots. In a typical situation (transplanting a tomato plant, for example), you would dig a hole slightly deeper than the root ball of the seedling.
Soil Temperature and Day Length
category: Articles and Instructions category: Garden Resources category: Soil Talk
The changing seasons, and the longer daylight hours in summer are a result of the angle of the Earth’s axis in relation to the sun. It’s easy to forget how these changes can affect the growth of plants, and in particular, vegetables. Soil temperature plays a very important role in the success or failure of the vegetable garden. Beet seeds, for instance, do not require particularly warm soil to germinate, and they will produce nice leafy tops if sown in early spring, but if the soil is too cold at planting time, they may not produce well-developed roots. By contrast,...
Soil Basics 101
category: Articles and Instructions category: Garden Resources category: Soil Talk
In the cool, damp, and dark season from late fall to early spring, not a lot is growing outside. Even the plants you may have under cloche protection or in the greenhouse will be growing slowly, struggling to turn the low light levels into useful energy for vegetative growth. This is the right time of year to learn about soil science and think about how you can improve your garden soil before new seeds are sown or transplants go out in the spring. There are four central issues that offer a better understanding of garden soil and how it can...
Green Manure Cover Crops
category: Articles and Instructions category: Garden Resources category: Soil Talk Cover-crops how-to-grow organic
“Green manure” is the name given to cover crops that are planted for the purpose of adding nutrients and organic matter to the soil. These plants can be as effective as animal manure in producing humus, thereby increasing soil fertility and structure. Green manure cover crops are inexpensive to plant, and serve multiple purposes. Best of all, they can be put to work during times of the year when growing food crops is not feasible. A central concept of organic gardening is the notion of feeding the soil. We literally add organic matter to the soil to provide food for...
