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SOIL OR DIRT?
BY
So what is it?
Soil or dirt? Soil comes from rock, freezing, rain, and roots,
wind, and sun. All have helped break it down and the process goes on as
plants add material, and the fungous, worms, bacteria and other
organisms do their share. Pick up a handful of your soil. Only about
half of it is actually solid material.
The rest is living and dead organisms, and plant material plus
air spaces that are so important for your roots.
This is why all garden articles say to stay off of your beds.
Isn’t this some of the theory of “no-till” farming? Those roots
as they decay leave trails for air and water to go down.
For outside in the vegetable or flower
bed, the ideal soil is loam. A formula says it contains 2 parts each of
sand and silt, and one part clay, plus as much compost as possible. Silt
is described as fine mineral particles, sand as large particles while
clay is extremely fine. Sand with its big pieces has many large pores so
it has good drainage but that drainage allows water and fertilizer to go
down below the root zone. On
the other hand clay is so fine it leaves little pore space and it
difficult for water to enter so it runs off the top.
Each little particle will hang on to water or fertilizer once it
gets to it so it is very fertile soil.
Clay swells when wet and shrinks when dry (see those cracks).
Outside we add compost to both.
I have heard it said you can not have too much compost! It
supplies nutrients from the decayed plants, it slurps up water like a
sponge and because the particles are large, they create the air spaces
that plant roots need. It encourages such creatures as worms that eat
it, produce castings and dig more pathways for water. If you have enough
space it is good to dig a ditch, fill it with compost or weeds (not
seeds), rhubarb leaves, etc. and when full use the next ditch to cover
it up. This will make your
soil deeper in food. If I
dig up any sod, I place it upside down in the ditch.
This is called “trench composting”.
So soil is not dirt! Dirt is what you wash off your clothes or
the puppy brings in on his feet.
Soil is a complex mixture full of living things such as fungous,
worms, insects, and bacteria and can change for better or worse
depending upon how you treat it! Crickets love compost piles and so do
roly poly’s.
If you are curious about your soil use a jar with straight sides,
add a cup or so your soil, and shake it up.
Don’t just take a little off the top but take a slice of dirt 4
or 5 inches down so you have a good sample. Add at least 2 times as much
water as soil and shake well to thoroughly mix.Then place the jar on an
even surface and it settle.
In 24 hours the sandy part will be a layer on the bottom, the silt will
be in the middle, with the clay as the top layer. This will give you the
proportions of each you have.
Watering is affected by your soil type. We are told to water long
and deep and less often.
Compost is the answer many times.
It creates pore space for air and water, it absorbs a good deal
of water, it provides food for the plants, slows down drainage in sandy
soils, and aids clay in holding water. Once you know what works best for
you there are timers to put on your system.
What about your container plants?
An important
part of our soil is the pH.
Here in
Before planting
acid loving plants, especially Blueberries, it is recommended to dig the
hole and then add the sulphur and also Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss to
the soil. These two items will lower the pH to give the plants a good
start. Copyright 2012 |