Trenching Trenching loosens your soil and adds cured compost to a depth of three feet. Although this method is the most intense of all of those described here, it’s the most efficient way to loosen one’s soil and add the Read more…
Trenching, Bastard Trenching, and Double Digging—An Overview Although not as common anymore, trenching, bastard trenching, and double digging have been around for centuries and have been described in gardening books dating back at least to the 1920s. They are, by Read more…
Lessons from Roots: Why Our Plants Do Best in Wide Beds That Are Loosened Deeply We understand that our garden plants need rich, deep, well-drained, well-loosened soil that’s full of organic matter, but how deep and how loose is ideal? Read more…
Deep Most gardeners add richness and organic matter with soil amendments and till them in, attempting to create ideal soil, but tillers only incorporate these amendments and loosen the soil about six-to-eight inches deep. Our garden plants, however, actually benefit Read more…
Well-Loosened Most gardeners know that our garden plants really suffer in deeply compacted soil. This is one of our reasons for tilling each season. We till to destroy weeds and turn vegetation into the soil, sure, but we also till Read more…
Well-Drained Well-drained soils allow water to seep through and drain to the deeper water table. They also keep plants from partially suffocating or even completely drowning after massive rains. What we want, as gardeners, is evenly moist soil, not waterlogged Read more…
Full of Organic Matter Even those who know the importance of the organic matter in our soil might not know all of its benefits. There are many! Organic Matter’s Origins First, where does the organic matter in our soil come Read more…
Rich In the past, to gain richness, gardeners and farmers have typically added plenty of macronutrients to their soil—the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK) found in most fertilizers—for their plants to grow large. However, they haven’t always taken into account Read more…
Perfect Soil Perfect soil: Deep. Rich. Full of organic matter. Well-drained. And well-loosened. It’s a gardener’s dream. Deep. We all have a line where our topsoil meets our subsoil. It’s where, as you dig, the soil changes color, usually from Read more…
A Gardener’s Relationship with Soil As gardeners, we feel like we grow plants. But we don’t. At least, that’s not the whole picture—or even the most important part of it. The wisest insight green-thumbed gardeners possess is knowing they don’t Read more…