Gardening starts with soil. The medium in which our plants grow is foundational to their health and to the ongoing success of our gardens. As with many gardening tasks, maintaining soil health isn’t a one-and-done deal, but rather an ongoing project over the life of our garden. So whether you have an indoor garden of houseplants, a container garden on a patio, or a large in-ground garden, there are a few things to bear in mind when it comes to maintaining soil health through the gardening season.
One of the first orders of business is to have your soil tested, especially if it’s a new space or if you haven’t had it tested lately. This is less a problem with container gardens that have been planted in an appropriate container mix, but even they every few years testing is a good idea. Different types of plants have different soil nutrient requirements, different pH requirements, and their own moisture requirements. Soil testing helps gardeners manage those factors and keep their plants happy. You can either buy a commercial test at most gardening or home improvement stores, or you can check and see if your local extension office or garden club doesn’t offer testing services.
Regardless of your soil needs, good soil needs good cover. Mulch and other ground covers do more than just look nice. They protect soil from the sun, which preserves soil health, maintains a healthy biome of microorganisms in the soil, and prevents evaporation. Good soil cover also prevents runoff and erosion damage—even a heavy rain can compact or displace the soil leading to future problems. So if you want your soil to stay healthy, give it some shelter from the sun and wind!
So what happens if your soil test reveals that your soil needs some help? Maybe it needs different nutritional content or a different pH in order to support the plants you’d like to install there. Maybe the overall nutrition just needs improvement, or you have a dense soil that needs to be loosened. These are all jobs for soil amendments, which as the name suggests are additives you mix into your soil in order to bring about a desired change. Compost is a great soil amendment for adding nutritional content, and some fertilizers also function as soil amendments. Some dense soils can be improved by loosening them and adding more organic content in order to make them more hospitable to plant growth; this is especially common with clay soils. Finding the right soil amendment for your needs requires knowing the current state of your soil and how different amendments will interact with it, but there are some good resources here to help.
Weed control is another important function of soil health, and every gardener knows that keeping ahead of the weeds can be a real chore sometimes. There are a number of things we can do to make that process easier on both ourselves and our soil. Removing weeds early before they reach full size and take root can help minimize soil disturbance. Pulling large weeds can create holes and furrows in the soil that can lead to erosion if they occur on a wide sale. Weeds also draw moisture and nutrients from the soil, which forces our plants to compete with them and can negatively affect our plants’ growth. While there are no “bad” plants, there are plants that grow where we don’t want them too. That’s a good working definition of a weed and a good reminder to keep them out of your garden soil.
And finally, just as all plants need moisture healthy soil needs moisture. Watering does more than care for our plants. It also helps keep our soil healthy by supporting a healthy biome of microorganisms, keeping soil from becoming overly compact, and helping to preserve a good balance of nutrients and organic matter. Drought can damage soil, so keeping our plants and their soil watered appropriately is a big step towards maintaining a health garden soil.
Think of this blog as a reminder of things to do in order to maintain healthy garden soil, and use the links we’ve included for more detailed information about each particular task. Healthy soil makes for a healthy garden and a much easier time for the gardener, so make soil health a priority this season and see how much happier it makes you and your plants!
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