Improving Soil
Kimmsr
12 years ago
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maplerbirch
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agowayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Need help on improving soil for container meyer lemons.
Comments (2)Your statement "To help with the coarseness, I bought coarse perlite:" indicates you might want to pay particular attention to the section in container soils about "how much gravel do you have to add to pudding so it drains water?". Bark is great. Adding Perlite is great. However, Don't think in terms of adding them to the Farfard but how much Farfard you can add to the Bark and Perlite. 50% bark, 30% perlite, 20% Farfard perhaps. Probably better to use 70% bark, 20% perlite, 10% Farfard. Other option is to screen the Farfard over insect screen and toss whatever falls through regular 1/16" insect screen. Looks like from the picture, you would be tossing 75% of the Farfard mix....See MoreHelp with improving soil and getting a thicker tall fescue lawn
Comments (5)Chadinlg- at the moment, the mulch mowing is not enough. I always mulch mow at the highest setting and water an inch as rarely as the weather permits. Im surprised you don’t fertilize at all since grass is a heavy feeder and really needs it. I typically use an organic feed as fertilizer and I’m wondering if I should use it more frequently for a year to improve the soil....See MoreHow to improve soil - and is it necessary?
Comments (34)Up-front, I'll state clearly that yearly mulching is a good thing and a good way to maintain and build healthy soil. But: "once-and-done" when used here and in this context is commonly (or at least often enough) used to refer to a different approach than frequent eg annually tilling. Not exactly no-till, 'once and done' is low till - i.e. recognising that some soil might be in bad shape to start with and could really use being loosened up / dug up once and organic matter added to the mix to amend. In other words, the 'once and done' refers only to the tilling; just about everyone who suggests this approach would ALSO suggest good soil building practice of mulching every year. And while it's true that organic matter will degrade over time, it is not true that all organic carbon matter in soil oxidizes and is gone in just a few years. Organic carbon breaks down more quickly when exposed to air and the elements - one reason to not actively dig up or till frequently; in addition, there is soil carbon (like plant roots alive and dead) that was not part of the soil amending that tilling exposes, and can lead to even less carbon in soil being retained. Carbon and other organic compounds further down - particularly lignins but many others (in initial or converted into other forms) - can be quite stable over long periods of time in the right conditions, even centuries - particularly when it becomes humus and other complex compounds (some of which will aggregate with clay particles and to some degree keep the soil from becoming as dense and compact). Then there is actually carbon/organic material added to soil as root growth - some of which can also be quite long-lasting and stable in the right conditions and form a big part of healthy soil. (Note that those 'right conditions' will often involve continual additions - natural or external - of new organic matter at the surface or by growth). But yes - organic material does degrade over time, more when exposed to air and the elements, less quickly further down in soil, and all quite dependent on local conditions and 'use' of the soil (what's growing there and how it's handled, including tilling). It's not true though that this means that it all disappears in a few short years, nor does it mean that 'amending' the soil yearly is necessarily the same thing as tilling in organic matter every year. Not doing so is a recognized garden and agricultural practice ("no till"), one benefit of which is losing less organic matter to decomposition / degradation, including disrupting soil life by tilling. "Once and done" is just a slight variation on that - and neither of them imply not retaining or adding organic matter on an ongoing basis. Now, to each his own - if someone wants to till and add organic material every year or frequently, that's up to them. But both no till and 'once and done' can be valid approaches as well; I'm sure this was just a misunderstanding of what was meant by 'once and done' though - and neither of them would mean not amending eg mulching on an ongoing basis....See MoreHelp with improving soil
Comments (12)When we moved here in 1999 all the soil was heavy clay. I swear you could have used it to make pottery! I made the mistake of using some of that cursed landscape fabric - fortunately just on a few paths and not in planting beds...! It didn't take long to realize that the soil under the fabric was getting hard and dense. I concluded that what was happening was that worms and other soil organisms were being blocked from reaching the surface so they could not bring organic matter down into the soil and so they moved elsewhere. When they left an area, their tunnels (which provided a route for air and water to move through the soil) rapidly collapsed, making the soil dense and hard. I removed the fabric and have never used it again in the garden. Its only use of it that I can support is under hardscaping to keep the gravel base from migrating into the soil. The fact that soil organisms move out of the area where pavers have been laid is not a big issue. Other than on paths, I don't use bark mulches in the garden (putting down mulch in beds is good but too much work for me!) I plant densely so plants become my 'mulch' to shade the soil and limit weeds. I also leave a lot of the dead foliage on the ground to 'compost in place' and tree leaves are raked into the garden beds in the fall. Large leaves get chopped first with the lawnmower (the bag attachment is necessary for that) and oak leaves (about 1/3 of the oak leaves stay on the tree all winter and only drop off in the spring...) get sucked up and chopped with the vacuum leaf blower in the spring and spread on the beds in the spring. The other thing we did that I think was important was use a mycorrhizal supplement when planting. We did that for about 10 years but don't do it now because it has got hard to find it in garden centres and also there is probably enough of it in the soil now that it doesn't need to be added as a supplement. While our soil is still a bit heavy, there is now no sign of that horrible red clay in the top 18" or so of the soil! Most plants do well here and we rarely water unless there is an extended dry period and some plants are looking stressed. The last rain we had here this month was May 4 and the only things we have watered is part of the back lawn and a shrub that was moved late last summer and looks like it might not survive...! So, getting rid of that landscape fabric is your first priority and then add as much organic matter as possible (mycorrhizal fungus is a natural organic matter addition to the soil that also forms a symbiotic relationship with plant roots to supply water and nutrients). Enjoy your garden!...See MoreTheMasterGardener1
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agowayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoKimmsr
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agowayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agopnbrown
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agorlv4
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agowayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agobi11me
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agomaplerbirch
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoTheMasterGardener1
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agobi11me
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agopnbrown
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agowayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agomaplerbirch
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoKimmsr
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agobi11me
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agomaplerbirch
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agobi11me
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agopnbrown
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agowayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoLloyd
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agobi11me
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agopnbrown
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agomaplerbirch
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agopnbrown
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agobi11me
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agowayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoKimmsr
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agowayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agopnbrown
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agopeter_6
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoKimmsr
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agomaplerbirch
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agopnbrown
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agobi11me
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agopnbrown
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agopeter_6
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoKimmsr
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agopnbrown
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoTheMasterGardener1
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agowayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRockyCropNaturals
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agobi11me
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRockyCropNaturals
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agopnbrown
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agowayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agopnbrown
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoKimmsr
12 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
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