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Gardening begins, literally, from the ground up. Though
plants create their own energy from the sun, they also have
to get nutrients from the soil down below to keep the
photosynthetic engine going. If your soil isn't correctly
amended, your plants will soon begin to show signs of
declining health. What many people think are pest or disease
problems can more likely be a dilemma with the soil. So to
prevent you spending time, effort, and money on trying to
correct a plant's declining health, lean how to amend your
soil to create the perfect environment which will take care
of your plants the moment they are put into the ground.
Amending your soil with organic matter offers many benefits
for your landscape. First and foremost, adding some form of
compost will improve the texture of your soil, making sandy
soils more absorbent and clay soils less so. Mixing your
soil with compost will create a more loamy soil, which will
make your plants sigh with relief. Another reason to amend
your soil is to help your plants be able to absorb water and
nutrients into their system. Whereas clay soils bind too
tightly to these needed materials and sandy soils cannot
hold on to them at all, a soil high in organic matter will
hold onto these nutrients just long enough to serve them up
to the plants on a silver platter. Your plants will be
treated like royalty by the soil well-amended with organic
matter.
There are many varieties of composted material that you can
choose to amend your soil with. You could go with a variety
of sphagnum peat moss, sawdust, chopped-up bark, leaves,
grass clippings, and even cow manure. Some of this composted
material can be bought at garden centers, but you also can
create homemade compost using these materials along with
organic scraps from your kitchen. Just make sure that
whatever material you use has already gone though the
decomposition process. If you put this material out on your
landscape before it has composted, the resultant heat
produced form the decomposition process will burn and kill
your plants. Remember: if you don't compost before you
apply, your landscape plants will fry.
Composting your organic material can take any time from six
weeks to a year. The key factor that will determine how long
it will take is air circulation. The more air circulation
your compost pile receives, the faster the material is able
to break down. Also, different material will degrade at
different rates. One of the slowest is sawdust, which you
usually want to make sure it has had a year to decompose
itself. If just let to sit, a compost made up of garden
waste and kitchen scraps can take about six months to be
fully broken down. Of course, this time frame can be shorted
with good air circulation, moisture, and bacteria.
Once you have let your compost pile break down fully, you
can incorporate it into your existing soil. After you cover
your soil with an even blanket of your compost, use a large
garden fork or a motorized tiller to mix in the compost with
the rest of your soil. For best results, try to mix in the
compost to a depth of 10 to 15 inches, which is where the
majority of plant roots lie. If you have a very sandy or
clay-based soil, try to mix in one part organic matter for
every two parts of native soil. If your soil is relatively
loamy or it has been amended before, it should be safe to go
with one part organic matter for every four parts native
soil.
By amending the very soil that your plants live in, you will
be able to reduce the pressures on your time, nerves, and
wallet trying to care for sickly plants struggling to
survive in a mass of clay or a sandy pit. Providing these
favorable conditions in your landscape will make you feel
safer laying your prized investment of shrubs and trees into
your garden soil. The organic matter in the soil will keep
on taking care of your plants even when you cannot find the
time to yourself. With just this bit of extra effort, your
plants will reward you handsomely with their newfound vigor
and growth.
Carrie P. Williams is a professional landscape designer with
Turf Tamer, Inc. She has written many informative
landscaping articles for Turf Tamer's Tip of the Week
program. Want to learn more landscaping tips and
tricks? Go to http://www.turftamerinc.com/tip.sh
tm to sign up for the 'Tip of the Week' and learn more tips!
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