Container Garden 411

If you’re getting ready to go on a new garden venture, you need to prepare
your soil to ideally house your plants. The best thing you can do in the
soil preparation process is to reach the perfect mixture of sand, silt,
and clay. Preferably there would be 40 percent sand, 40 percent silt, and
20 percent clay. There are several tests used by experienced gardeners to
check whether the dirt is properly composed. Primarily you can squeeze it in
your hand. If it doesn’t hold its shape and crumbles without any outside
force, your sand ratio is probably a little high. If you poke the
compressed ball with your finger and it doesn’t fall apart easily, your
soil contains too much clay.

If you’re still not sure about the content of your soil, you can separate
each ingredient by using this simple method. Put a cup or two of dirt into
a jar of water. Shake the water up until the soil is suspended, then let
leave it alone until you can see 3 distinct layers. the upmost layer is
clay, the next is silt, and on the bottom is sand. You should be able to
figure out each component in your dirt, and act accordingly.

After having your soil anaylzed, if you consider that it is
low on a certain ingredient then you should definitely do something to fix
it. If dealing with too much silt or sand, it’s best to add some peat moss
or compost. If you’ve got too much clay, add a mixture of peat moss and
sand. The peat moss, when moistens, helps for the new ingredient to
allow the mixture to be infiltrated better. If you can’t seem to manage to attain a
proper mixture, just head down to your local gardening store. You should
certainly be able to find something to to take care of the problem.

The water content of the soil is another important thing to consider when
preparing for your garden. If your growth area is at the bottom of an incline,
it is most likely going to absorb too much water and drown out the plants.
If this is the case, you should probably elevate your garden a few inches
(4 or 5) over the rest of the ground. Drainage will improve
and less saturation.

Supplementing your soil with nutrients is also vital to the process, since most
urban soils have little to no nutrients already in them naturally. One to
two weeks prior to planting, you should add a good amount of fertilizer to
your growth area. Mix it in really well and let it sit for a while. Once you
have done this, your soil will be completely ready for whatever seeds you
will plant in it.

Even after your seeds have been planted, attention to the soil is still an issue.
At first, your new seeds are using up all the nutrients as fast as they can
around them to sprout into a real plant. If they run out of food, how are
they supposed to grow? About a week after planting, you should add the
same amount of fertilizer that you added before. After this you should
keep up the fertilizer, but less frequently. If you add a tiny bit every
couple of weeks, that should be plenty to keep your planting area thriving.

Basically, the entire process of soil care can be compressed into just
several steps… ensure the makeup of the soil is satisfactory, make sure
you have proper drainage in your sowing area, add fertilizer before and after
planting, then start your regular fertilization schedule. Follow these simple
steps, and you’ll have a plethora of healthy plants in no time. And if you
think you need to clear up any details, just go to your local nursery
and enquire there. Most of the employees will be more than happy to give
you advice.