SOIL TIPS

This page will provide guidelines to create and maintain good soil essential for growing healthy herbs, vegetables, etc.

PREPARING THE SEED BED

The first thing you should decide is where you will be creating your garden.  There are layout ideas on the ETC. page for different beds.  It is important to choose a very sunny location, preferably facing south.  You may wish to create a raised bed as it’s easier to plant and weed the garden.  The best time to prepare a garden is when the soil is workable.  Not too dry or wet.  Usually around late March is a good time to start.  Another good time of the year to start as well is in the fall after you’ve harvested your crop.  The soil is full of nutrients after you’ve already had a crop, and makes a great basis.

Okay, so now you’ve chosen your location, or created your raised bed.  Now here’s the hard part.  Dig out the area you have chosen.  Using a pointed shovel, dig down to about a foot in depth.  Check the soil after you’ve turned it over.  Squeeze a handful of soil into a ball in your palm.  If the lump falls apart easily when you tap it, it's ready.  If it dents but holds together when you tap it, let it dry out some more.  Working wet soil will hurt its structure and make clods that will dry like bricks.

When you work your soil, add plenty of organic matter and fertilizer, as well as lime (which is essential for good drainage).  Compost, manure, peat moss, grass clippings and aged sawdust are the kinds of organic matter that will help build your soil (to make your own compost click here ).  Add as much as you can now and keep digging it in through the season.  If you have a very sandy, or a heavy clay soil, organic matter is your best friend.  It will improve the worst soil and make an average soil a joy to work.

FERTILIZER

Use whatever you have or can buy inexpensively.  The three numbers (15-10-10 or 6-10-7) on any fertilizer package give the percentages of nitrogen, phosphate and potash.  Make sure your fertilizer has some of all of these elements.  You could start with about three pounds (pints) of 5-10-10 per 100 square feet.  If your fertilizer is stronger (10-20-20), use less.

LIME

It's best to apply lime when the soil is as dry as possible, allowing it to be mixed in well.  Ideally, lime the soil in the fall.  It will have adjusted the pH by spring planting time.  Most veggies (potatoes are the exception) would prefer a pH between 6.5 and 7.0.  A soil test will give you specific recommendations.  General guidelines are: for every 100 square feet of sandy soil--4 pounds, loam--6 pounds, clay-like soil--8 pounds. Reapply lime every 2 years (3 years for clay soil).  For ideas on creating raised beds, go to the ETC. Pot…