Soil Work For Great Garden Soil

Soil work is the key to good gardening. It's one of man's most important natural resources, since it is the original source of much of his food and clothing.

A good loam is considered the most desirable texture. It has large pore space for good but not excessive drainage, and enough fine material to retain the water for plant use.

The basic idea here is to have different sizes of soil particles. Loams should not be worked when they are so wet that water can be pressed out by squeezing the soil. Otherwise they can be cultivated at almost any time.

You may buy several products as described below in order to achieve the correct soil consistency, or simply buy organic soil conditioner from an online source, local garden center, or co-op.

One online source for organic soil conditioner that we highly recommend is Kelp Meal which not only improves the soil texture, but it also increases the fertility of your soil while increasing its capacity to retain moisture.

Kelp meal has unique soil-building qualities. Coastal gardeners have attributed "mystical" powers to kelp for centuries. The kelp meal in this bag is made from live, ocean-harvested kelp (Ascophyllus Nodosum), not from kelp that washed up on shore. All you need is one pound per 100 square feet. It can even be used as a general soil conditioner around shrubs, trees, and houseplant. We use a kelp fertilizer on our herbs to help retain the essential oils that may be lost if you use regular fertilizer. Kelp Meal may even be added to amended your compost pile.
You may also buy material locally such as worm castings, mushroom compost, and aged animal manure.

Garden Soil Preparation - How to Ammend Types of Soil

However, wood ashes have little effect on the texture and physical properties of a sand or sandy soil unless used in very large quantities during your soil work. Lime may improve the physical condition of some sandy soils, for it tends to coagulate very find particles (colloids) into slightly larger particles.

These larger particles then fill the large pore spaces present in sandy soils, and greatly reduce their size. However, some form of organic matter, such as peat, leaf mold, manure or compost, would be most satisfactory. It should not be too course.

Improving Clay Soil

Clay soil may be improved also by adding coarser materials, or by coagulating the fine particles into larger ones during your soil work.

This coagulation usually is brought about by using plenty of a very soluble lime material such as burned or hydrated lime.

Sands may also be added to improve clay soils during soil work. It is easier to add sand to clays than clays to sands to prepare the desired loam texture.

If sands are used they should be free from salt (found in the sea sand), and free from a clay coating. These objectionable features can usually be overcome by washing the sand or by securing washed sand from you local garden center. Coal ashes may also be used. However, coal ashes are silicates which weather rapidly into still finer materials when blended in a soil.

Organic matter is one of the most desirable materials to add during your soil work to improve the physical condition of clay soil. It should be a granular organic material such as peat, leaf mold, rotted manure, compost or even sewage sludge.

We don't suggest straw or shredded material because it is very difficult to mix such materials with a clay soil. Any material used to improve the texture should be well mixed with the clay particles of the soil. The purpose of this soil work to hold the fine particles apart for better air, water and root penetration.

Amending The Soil Is The Most Important Part of Soil Work

The new book Mid-South Garden Guide written by the Memphis Botanical Garden Club, explains very well how to amend the soil by adding organic matter and sand.

They suggest, and we agree, that if you are starting from scratch with your soil work, and you want to create a flower-bed or shrub boarder in an open area, it's best till your garden by making three full passes over the area to turn the dirt to a depth of about 10" - 12".

Then, break up the big hard dirt clods and get rid of any roots and rocks that may have been churned up in the process. You may have tree roots to contend with from a tree 20 feet away!

Next add dehydrated manure (we use Black Cow Manure - that's the name brand found at garden centers) by shaking out the bag to cover about 1" deep. Shake coarse builder's sand (red sand) or granite grit evenly over the area to a depth of about 1", or use compost, or pine fines (soil conditioner) to a depth of 1 1/2"-2". Sprinkle an even dusting of dolomitic lime (5 lbs. per 100 square feet) and re-till the area. Soil work is though sometimes, bit it is well worth the effort.

This will mix all the amendments and you will have a loose, clump-free, well-drained soil which will be good for most trees and plants such as full sun annuals, drought resistant annuals, as well as full sun perennials, and herbs. Your soil work for that area is complete!

For shade loving perennials and annuals, you may need to enrich the soil even more by adding more manure, cottonseed meal, fine pine bark chips(soil conditioner), compost but less sand so that it is a little heavier in order to retain more water. Remember, these plants grow naturally in the woods with lots of decomposed organic matter so try to mimic those conditions when doing soil work.

You know you have achieved a nice if you can take a handful of soil, squeeze it in your hands, and have a cake-crumb-like texture. It will be similar to potting soil. The color should be deep, rich blackish-brown in color.

For More Information about soil work:

Find helpful books on soil at Amazon.com to help you get the most out of your gardening experience. There's lots more to learn about soil work than what I can tell you here!

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