Soil is the foundation of your garden. You should be doing everything you can to improve it.
What does it take to improve your soil? How do you know if you have good or bad soil?
Composting had been around a long time. Even Thomas Jefferson knew the value of soil improvement at Monticello. Noting the difficulty of moving manure from the barns to the fields, he decided to station the cattle in the fields for long periods of time. The plan was to have “a moveable cow house” set up in the middle of the field so he could take advantage of their droppings.
It may not be practical for you to have cattle standing in the middle of your garden, but you can take advantage of adding compost in the same way.
A compost pile is a replication of the natural process that takes place almost everywhere.
From The Rodale Book of Composting: Easy Methods for Every Gardener:
“In good garden soils, the individual particles of sand, clay and silt will naturally group together into larger units called aggregates. This process is necessary to a good garden soil, since it promotes aeration and water drainage. The ideal garden soil has a granular, or a crumb, structure. Sandy soils will have poor structure, while heavy clay soil compacts when wet, inhibiting good plant growth. Compost can correct a soil that is either too sandy or too clayey by adding organic matter that encourages aggregate formation.”
Your next step is doing the Mason Jar Soil Test to get a snapshot of the structure of your soil.
This will tell you how much sand, clay and organic matter you have. Now you know what to start adding to build your soil. If in doubt – add compost – you can’t go wrong.
One of the best, and least expensive, ways to build your soil is to make your own compost. You already have the materials at home – right in your kitchen.
Try these Posts at PreparednessMama to get started with your best garden.
4 Season End Garden Tasks You Shouldn’t Skip
DIY Simple Kitchen Scrap Composter
Mason Jar Soil Test
14 Clever Uses for Shredded Paper Around the Homestead
DIY Dry Banana Peels as Fertilizer
DIY Composting at Home
6 Fantastic Reasons for Growing and Using a Comfrey Plant
Trench Composting Basics
4 Reasons to Improve Garden Soil
5 Things to Avoid When You Start Worm Composting
Jora JK125 Composter Giveaway
15 Favorite Gardening Books for 2015
Stinky But Effective – Comfrey Fertilizer Tea
Our Home Recycling System: 6 Month Update
Make Worm Castings Tea
How to Improve Soil Structure This Winter
I Dumped My Garbage Service and Saved $312
SMART Composting – Turn Your Spoil into Soil
Teach Your Family to Compost Kitchen Scraps
DIY Manure Tea – Putting Manure to Work in Your Garden
Create a Mini Compost Bin
Other gardening pages at PreparednessMama:
Gardening for Food Production – What’s your Garden Style? – Tips, Tricks, Sprays & Brews (DIY Gardening) – Growing Herbs – Get Growing