What do plants need to grow?
Sun, dirt, water. Much is made of positioning a garden so it gets at least 8 hours of sunshine. People are quick to hook up sprinklers or find rain barrels to keep their gardens watered. But what about the dirt? How can you affect this third element of gardening?
First, test your soil. It’s easy–many colleges, universities and county seats have soil testing labs where one can drop off a sample from your garden and have it analyzed for pH and nutrients. Soil testing ranges from $8-$25 depending on where you live, but doing so can give you a LOT of information about how to fertilize and enrich your soil for maximum gardening benefits. Most labs will offer suggestions for improving your soil, too.
Second, if you garden near a roadside, get your soil tested for lead. Lead was added to fuel until 1990, leaving a heavy residue from exhaust concentrated beside roadways. If you’re stuck against a street, it’s best to use raised beds or containers to grow your vegetables and avoid lead contamination. Lead is heavy and concentrates in an area and several studies in other countries have shown the extent of roadside contamination from auto exhaust. And tires are made with lead wheel weights for balancing. These lead weights often fall off and end up in roadside ditches–leaving lines of lead contamination criss-crossing our country. (On a happy note, Congress is working on banning the use of lead in wheel weights, thus eliminating this source of lead contamination.)
Third, don’t blindly spend money on that Evil Blue Chemical (AKA “MiracleGro”) to make your tomatoes bodaceous this season. The best soil additive? Compost. Any decomposed natural substance will make your soil more nutritious for plant growth, hold moisture better and allow for the best air circulation for root growth. Compost will add structure to sandy soil and break up heavy clay. Compost does NOT smell and is NOT toxic–it’s dark, crumbly and earthy-smelling. If you aren’t into making your own compost, you can buy it nearly anywhere these days.
Fourth and finally, all gardens benefit from the addition of worm poop. Worm poop (AKA “Worm Castings”) provide the very best fertilizer for plants. Rich in nitrate nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, worm poop is the digested dead plant matter that worms eat. Worm poop as fertilizer does NOT smell, will NOT burn out your plants and will NOT harm anyone since it’s totally nontoxic.
This is all very timely, as I’ve been lamenting the mediocre results I’ve gotten from my new garden thus far this summer.
Oh I use Fish fertilizer in my garden, when I remember to add it.
And, I went to a class recently on worm bins.