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 far, the most intense methods but also the fastest and 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? Why so deep? And why is planting in beds so 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 greatly from our soil being improved and loosened much, much 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 to loosen the soil. We all know this intuitively. We’d 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 soil. Well-drained soil accomplishes this, even after heavy downpours. We 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 from? Organic matter in our garden soil comes from all 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 the availability of micronutrients that make plants truly healthy and 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 a darker brown or black to lighter brown, brownish-red, tan, 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 grow plants; they grow soil. Plants are merely a byproduct, Read more…
Should I Water? Okay, I now know how to meet most of my “watering” needs by conserving the rain I already receive. But it hasn’t rained for weeks, and the mulch I added isn’t doing the trick. Should I water? And how? The honest answer is that I can’t answer Read more…