How To Improve Your Garden Soil in 2023
- Author: Saiqa Najeeb
- Last Updated On: July 14, 2023
Your garden soil will nourish the plants if you feed them properly. Healthy garden soil supports an abundance of living organisms, including bacteria, fungi, and earthworms, that together create a dynamic soil ecosystem.
If you are looking for ways to improve your garden soil and skyrocket your garden productivity, stay with us. You’ll get to know all the juicy details that you need to know for maintaining and improving a healthy soil environment.
Don’t treat your garden soil like dirt!
Know Your Garden Soil
The first step in enhancing your garden soil is determining the type of soil you have. When it comes to maintaining plant life, different soils have varied strengths and limitations. The best soil-building processes are determined by the fundamental features of your soil, such as its water-holding capacity and pH.
The subsurface ecosystem under the soil, like the aboveground ecosystem in your garden, requires tending. Soil improvement is a continuous process of nurturing the beneficial organisms on which your plants rely. The process is slow, steady, and continual. The cycle of plant growth, death, and decomposition continues. This natural dynamic is altered whether you maintain clean perennial beds or harvest crops from your food garden.
Testing your soil type: sand, silt, or clay?
So, how do you determine what kind of garden soil you have? Take a tiny amount of damp dirt in your hand and rub a pinch of it between your thumb and index finger. If the soil is rough, it contains predominantly sand; if it is slick and slimy, it contains mostly clay. It’s largely silt if you can construct a cylinder but the material crumbles as you roll it.
The jar test is a more accurate way of measuring the levels of clay, silt, and sand in your soil. Here’s how it’s done:
- Gather dirt from several locations in your yard and properly mix the samples.
- Take 1 cup of the mixture and strain off any stones or debris.
- Place the soil in a narrow glass jar (such as a pint canning jar), then fill the jar halfway with water.
- Close the jar and vigorously shake it to mix the contents. Set it aside and begin a timer.
- After one minute, measure and mark the settled soil level. This layer is made of sand.
- After two hours, measure again and subtract the sand layer to determine the amount of silt.
- After a few days, remeasure and deduct the sand and silt to determine the amount of clay.
- To calculate the percentage of each component, divide the height of each level by the total height of the settled soil and multiply by 100. If the whole settled soil is 6 inches tall and the sand portion is 3 inches, the sand content is 50% (3 ÷ 6 × 100 = 50%).
Testing for drainage
Knowing how effectively your soil drains allows you to decide what to plant and whether you need to improve drainage. Drainage issues are sometimes visible. Puddles on your lawn a day or two after heavy rains, for example, suggest poor drainage. However, a layer of clay may exist beneath loamy or sandy soil, causing water to accumulate in otherwise well-drained soil. Dig a hole before planting anything, especially trees, and plants, to examine what lies beneath the surface. Here’s how to test for soil drainage or percolation:
- Dig a 1-foot-diameter, 1-foot-deep hole.
- Pour water into the hole.
- Keep track of how long it takes for the water to drain.
If the water drains away in less than 10 minutes, your soil drains too quickly and possibly dries too soon. Water drains within 10 to 30 minutes on well-drained soils. Most plants may tolerate good drainage if it drains within four hours. Your soil is poorly drained If it takes more than 4 hours. Use this information to select the best plants for your soil. Remember that adding organic matter to the soil, such as compost, can enhance the drainage of both sandy and clayey soils.
Testing for pH and nutrients
You must be aware of the pH and nutrient levels in your garden soil. The pH of the soil measures its alkalinity or acidity. Because some nutrients are only available to plants within a specific pH range, knowing whether your soil is acidic (below pH 7 on a scale of 0 to 14) or alkaline (above pH 7) is critical.
A basic rule of thumb is that nutrient levels are adequate if your plants are growing, blooming, and fruiting properly. High or low pH levels, as well as uneven nutrition levels, can cause discolored, stunted, and unproductive plants. Unhealthy plants are more susceptible to pest and disease assaults, which means more work for you and less satisfaction from your plants.
Unhealthy plants are more vulnerable to pest and disease assaults, which means more work for you and less enjoyment from your garden. That is not what you desire!
Home testing kits provide a basic pH reading as well as an estimate of the important nutrients in your soil. Nurseries and garden centers carry a variety of test kits, from the most basic to the most complex. The most sophisticated tests are more expensive but provide more accurate results.
Your soil’s pH results
Most plants thrive in a pH range of 6 to 7, with 6.5 to 6.8 being optimum. However, some plants, such as blueberries and rhododendrons, like severely acidic soil (pH below 5), therefore you may need to modify the pH for specific species. Soils in low rainfall locations are often alkaline; soils in high rainfall areas are typically acidic because rain leaches calcium from the soil.
Nutrient test results
A soil test also reveals the quantities of soil nutrients accessible to plants, particularly the three nutrients that plants utilize the most: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Soils also contain numerous other nutrients that plants require at lower levels, such as magnesium and calcium. Plants do not grow to their full capacity if any nutrient is lacking. Organic principles may not be followed in soil test recommendations. They may advise you to use certain synthetic fertilizers to increase nutrient levels, for example. You might have to hunt for organic alternatives to get these nutrients.
Adjusting your pH
If your soil is too acidic, lime will be required to raise the pH. Crushed calcium carbonate (calcite or calcitic limestone) rock is referred to as “lime” or “limestone.” Dolomitic limestone (calcium-magnesium carbonate) benefits magnesium-deficient soils. The finer the dust, the faster it dissolves and elevates the pH of the soil.
Applying sulfur to alkaline soil will lower the pH. The optimum substance to use is usually 100 percent finely ground sulfur, also known as elemental sulfur. Soil bacteria convert sulfur to sulfuric acid, lowering the pH of the soil. Again, soil-testing lab data provide guidance.
Adding Organic Matter to Your Garden Soil
- Organic matter is the soil’s essence and a necessary component of a healthy planet. Organic matter is anything that was once alive, such as grass clippings, hay, straw, sawdust, pine needles, wood chips, leaves, manure, and anything else. It’s a miracle worker that improves the soil in a variety of important ways:
- Microorganisms and other soil life are fed: Beneficial bacteria, protozoa, fungi, beneficial nematodes, and other soil microbes absorb organic matter (and each other) and excrete it in a form that plants can utilize. Earthworms, beetles, and other organisms consume organic debris and tunnel into the soil, generating beneficial air gaps and excreting nutrients in the process.
- Reduces the number of dangerous disease organisms: Beneficial bacteria prey on and control pathogenic nematodes and fungi that cause plant damage.
- Organic matter aids in the adhesion of sandy soils and the retention of water and nutrients. It also aids in the opening of cavities between small, sticky clay particles, allowing clay soil to drain easier and contain more oxygen.
- Soil bacteria store nutrients in their bodies, which are released when they die or are consumed by other microbes. The more bacteria there are in the soil, the more nutrients it can store. Use straw mulch between compost around perennial flowers, vegetable garden beds, or bark mulch around trees and shrubs to add organic matter to your plantings wherever possible.
That’s it
Taking care of your garden soil is crucial for improving the productivity of your garden. By getting to know your soil, performing tests, and following the amendments as per the results, you can give your garden soil a substantial boost.
Follow the tips and tricks given in this guide and see your garden results soar in no time.
So, don’t wait any further and get your hands dirty!
