Improving Lawn & Garden Soil

With a little maintenance and know how, your yard and garden soil can be greatly improved, rewarding you with greener grass and more prolific produce. Here’s how!

Your first step to improving soil quality is to understand its components. Soil is made up of sand, silt, and clay. A balance of each is necessary for good soil. Herein lays the answer to the questions, “What makes good soil good, bad soil bad?”

Sand in soil is desirable for good aeration. However, too much sand will make the soil unable to retain water properly. Although clay helps the soil to better retain water, too much will cause soil to pack down and become hard when wet – retarding plant growth. Silt has benefits and hazards in between those of sand and clay.

The size particles of sand, silt, and clay differ; sand having the largest, clay the smallest. A balanced mixture of each of the three components produces nutrient rich soil with desirable water retention, called loam. A good loam blend is about 40 percent sand, 40 percent silt, and 20 percent clay.

Blending your own balanced mixture of sand, silt, and clay can greatly improve your yard and garden soil. If you opt for commercially prepared loam, make sure the sand, silt, and clay blend is proportionately accurate. Work at least a two-inch layer of loam into the top soil. About 13 cubic feet of loam is enough to cover 75-square-feet of surface area.

Applications of loam to the top soil every year for several years will be necessary to improve the nature of the soil – how the soil responds under certain conditions. Organic matter added to the soil will improve the soil’s structure.

A first response to hard soil is often to make the soil looser. But looser soil on its own is not necessarily better or healthier. The way individual soil particles bind together – its structure – is what determines whether or not a soil is of better quality and healthier for plants.

Well-structured soil retains water, allows roots to breathe, and breaks apart into tiny granules. Wet, well structured soil will hold together when scrunched, then loosen again as it dries. This type soil will hold nutrients and help plant roots breathe.

To improve the structure of soil, organic matter should be added regularly. Some types of organic matter are better to use than others.

Commercially prepared organic peat is cut from aquatic deposits of decayed vegetation. It is less expensive than some of the other kinds of peat, but does have major drawbacks. It is short-lived and will not significantly benefit low acidic soils.

Canadian peat moss, on the other hand, is long lasting and improves the acidic nature of the soil. It is also fairly easy to work. Its one real drawback is cost; it is more expensive than other kinds of peat.

Regular peat can be mixed with other forms of soil additives with good results. One of the best and most favorite of all soil additives is compost. Commercially prepared compost is relatively easy to manufacture.

Many lawn-care providers and gardeners prefer to make their own “cost free” compost. A compost bin or pile is an excellent way to recycle lawn and garden wastes, while providing a never ending supply of soil-enriching matter.

Another good soil additive is manure. It is organic and can loosen the soil and help to change its structure. It is also cheap, if not free. When using, mix manure in well with the top foot of soil. Fresh manure needs to be composted several months before use, and watered occasionally to leach out excess salts. Otherwise, you risk burning the roots of plants.

Even when using quality manure, it is necessary to add other nutrients to the soil. Manure is low in nitrogen, potash, and phosphate, while commercially prepared garden fertilizers have nearly twenty times more nitrogen and about eighty times more phosphate than cattle manure.

Keep conditioned soil top-notch by loosening with a hoe, tiller, or garden fork on a routine basis. Spreading a one to three-inch blanket of organic matter on the soil’s surface will help encourage worms, which help keep the soil aerated.

Basic but fool-proof, these easy to follow, low-cost ways to improve yard and garden soil are effective. Providing long-term soil enhancement for noticeably lush lawns, and healthier garden plants that’ll do you proud!