Garden Centre
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Knowing what you're doing
If you plan to garden outdoors and grow anything more than grass, you need to have a basic understanding of the conditions of your plot. This understanding includes:
1 The condition of the soil
2 The light, wind force and direction and temperature throughout the year
3 What grows well locally.
And ideally should also encompass what’s grown in the soil before you arrived. This last can be a tough one to find out and isn’t essential, but the other three are.
Let’s assume you want to grow potatoes, calla lilies and heathers. Well, you’re in trouble for a start because potatoes like loose, well-drained soil high in organic matter, as do callas, but your heathers will demand light, slightly acid soil and a cool, moist climate, so something has to give way! Trying to grow too many plants with varying and competing demands is one way to wear yourself out and achieve nothing – I’d either put those heathers in pots, where you can give them special ericaceous compost, or find something else that will harmonise with your overall garden planting.
To know your soil you have to look at it in more than one part of the garden, at more than one depth, and at different times of year. For example, at the bottom of my plot, the original owner had glasshouses and I’m forever digging up bits of her footings and foundations. Laying a lawn over that kind of rubble would result in bare patches, so I’ve chosen to pave it and put in perennial shrubs whose roots will cope with the occasional half-brick or bit of concrete. Once you know where your soil is rich and poor, waterlogged or free draining, you need to turn it. Turning the soil reveals what’s underneath, aerates it so that bacteria and worms can do their job of enriching it and breaks up clods that are anaerobic which means they don’t allow water or nutrients to penetrate easily and so are an inert on non-growing medium. I’m very fond of kit like this, which allows lightweight gardeners like myself to turn the soil without killing ourselves. And once the soil is turned, allow the weather a chance to break up those clods and lumps before you begin planting.
Labels: garden tasks, garden tips, garden vegetables, garden-tools
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2 Comments:
I've turned over the soil of my new vege garden once with a fork, and now it is in reasonably large clods still (between the sizes of golf balls and cricket balls). On the advice of a wise woman :) I'm going to buy in rotted manure to put down on it, then am going to fork over again, bash it about a bit (I suppose, to break it down), then rake (?). But, I seem to remember that just as different soils suit different plants, per your post here, so do different manures. That is, chicken 'doings' would be suitable for plants quite different than for, say, sheep pellets or horse dung. (Also heard horse dung no good?)
So, if you were planting broad beans and garlic as a winter crop, any special type of manure? Or is the manure mainly about organic matter to break up the soil?
Mark Hubbard, GV.
(Gardening Virgin.)
Good questions!
1 - the purpose of any manure or compost is to improve the condition and structure of soil, its ability to hold water and nutrients, support microbiological activity in the soil and to contribute macro and micronutrients to the garden's produce.
2 - the key thing with any manure is the phrase 'well rotted' which SHOULD mean aged for at least thirty days and/or composted. What it can mean is either left for years in a clamp or picked up last week and shoved in a polythene sack. 'Well rotted' manure will be: even in colour, friable (crumbly in the hand), sweet-smelling and relatively light in weight in proportion to its volume. Heavy, dark and wet manure is probably anaerobic - which means it lacks the necessary bacteria to feed the soil; while heavy, multicoloured and animal-smelling manure is probably fresh and may 'scorch' your plants.
3 - you can always compost your manure yourself. Just buy a couple of sacksfull, layer them in a compost bin with straw or grass clippings and leave for at least 30 days.
4 - Cow manure is 86% water, .55 nitrogen, .15 phosphorus and .50 potassium. Chicken manure is 73% water, 1.10 nitrogen, .90 phosphorus and .50 potassium. Horse manure is 80% water, .65 nitrogen, .25 phosphorus and .50 potassium. As you can see, there's quite a variation in their constituents, but all of them are good for the average garden, assuming that they are well-rotted.
5 - The key point to applying manure or compost is to leave it at least 30 days after digging in the product before planting out your vegetables or flowers. This isn't always possible, but it's the best rule of thumb, and prevents against scorch and over-concentration of nutrients that can distort growth.
Happy manuring ...!
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