So you’ve picked your plants and you are ready to create the best looking and most productive garden, good for you! You even went so far as selecting the best spot in your yard or selected the right size planters. Starting a new garden is not too difficult, the trick is keeping it healthy and making sure it thrives throughout the growing season, given your climate conditions. You think by cleaning up the area, or turning up the soil and adding a few plants, you should be well on your way of growing a garden?

Well, that might work for a little while but not for long term gardening. There’s a bit more to it than that. A successful growing season requires a little bit of planning. There are a few extra simple steps you should take to ensure the success of your garden in the long run. For example, making sure the soil is “gardening quality” or otherwise healthy. Knowing your soil type and condition is crucial.

To ensure a long and successful growing season, you must make sure you start off right. The soil is one of the major key components in a garden, because it provides nutrients and air that your garden require to grow and develop. I personally feel that it’s the most important part of your garden, but then again that’s my personal opinion. The success of your garden starts with how healthy your soil is. Your garden will have a better chance to thrive and be more productive if you start it with quality soil.

However, I should tell you that starting with quality soil is NOT the only components of growing a successful garden. There is so much more to gardening. They are other factors like watering your garden on a regular basis, making sure that area receives lots of daily natural sunlight and so on. Starting with good quality soil is a great start, but keeping it healthy throughout the season is also just as important.

Each plant require a certain pH level, though most thrives around 6.0 to 7.0 pH level. So knowing your soil pH level for growing vegetables is very important. The pH level determines the acidity or alkalinity level in your soil or the nutrients available for your plants. A simple soil test will usually indicate your soil’s pH level.

You can find numerous pH tester kits from your local nursery, they vary in prices depending on how simple or advanced the tester is. As a gardener, like using a glove, you should always have one of those handy also. Once you determined the pH level of your soil, the next step is to figure out if you need to adjust it by raising or lowering it. In most cases, you do need to make some adjustments. But luckily there are a few ways to fix that.

Using Limestone is the most common way of raising the pH level of soil. On the other hand, Sulfur is used to lower it if needed. They are available in both powered and palletized form. Just be careful to not adding too much as it will leads to plant poisoning. Another test is recommended a few days after application. It is also recommended that you monitor your pH level throughout the season because a few factors can alter your soil pH level over time.

For example, your pH level will fluctuate if you are in an area that receives a lot of rainfall or if you decide to use fertilizer to provide nutrients to your vegetables. All fertilizers nutrients are measured by 3 key ingredients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). Either in the front or in small prints in the back, each bag of fertilizer will most likely be labeled with the type of nutrient and/or the percentage provided. See Fertilizing Your Garden Soil post for more information.

Without enough Nitrogen, your garden will most likely fail. Most plants rely on nitrogen from the soil in order to thrive. Some rely on nitrogen from the soil more than others. So knowing if your soil has enough nitrogen is important. There are in nature a few plants that will produce their own nitrogen. They are called nitrogen-fixing plants. By the help of a bacteria called “Rhizobium”, they are able to draw nitrogen gas from the air and store it in their roots. Any leguminous plant of the pea flower family, such as peas and beans are considered nitrogen-fixing plants.

Those type of plants will release natural nitrogen into the your soil. So be proactive by planting plants that helps one another. For example, corn and beans can do very well together: Corn naturally sucks nitrogen from the soil, whereas beans adds nitrogen to the soil. I will provide more recommendation in future posts.

Even though I stress that knowing your soil pH level is important, the results should be used as a guideline. There’s much more to improving your soil than just having the right pH level. There are many other factors to keep into consideration, like the type of soil you may have. If you soil is too sandy, loamy or clumpy, you also have to fix that by adding other ingredients to help improve it. The type of soil in combination with the pH level should help you determine what to add or remove to make your soil healthy.

As always, any comments and or tips are appreciated. Check out more details below:
Best Vegetable Seeds for Planting to Feed Your Family
Everything You Need To Know About Growing Heirlooms
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Sources:
https://morninghomestead.com/how-to-compost-at-home-easy
https://morninghomestead.com/best-hydroponic-nutrients-reviews
https://morninghomestead.com/best-bloom-boosters-reviews
https://extension.psu.edu/soil-quality-information
https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/extension-gardener-handbook/1-soils-and-plant-nutrients