Components of Soil Improvement

What is fertilizer?  Why would you add compost to your soil?  What does lime do? Why are there white strands of fungus in my dirt?

These are all factors in maintaining healthy soil.  Here is a quick overview.

Your ground is like a chemistry set full of different minerals and organic materials.  Each of these contributes to nourishing different types of living plants, insects, bacteria, fungi and others.

There is no “perfect” combination.  It all depends on what you want to grow.

Ground, water supply and climate control what grows and this article focuses on supplementing the ground.

Fertilizer bags display three numbers.  They indicate nitrogen(N) - phosphorus(P) - potassium(K).  The number indicates a percent of the weight of the bag for each component.  If you bought a 100-pound bag of 10-20-10 fertilizer, it would contain 10 pounds of nitrogen, 20 pounds of phosphorus and 10 pounds of potassium.

Nitrogen supports the growth of leaves and chlorophyll.  Phosphorus supports growth of roots and parts of the plant that produce reproduction.  That means, flowers, fruit and seeds. Potassium supports overall plant growth.  Phosphorus and potassium also strengthen a plant’s immune system. 

This explains why fertilizer for foliage plants is different from fertilizer for crops.

But there are many other components to soil.

Fully composted matter adds natural nutrients as well as improving moisture retention in the soil.  Peat or sphagnum moss will improve water retention while lowering the Ph.  Lime raises the Ph to make the soil more “sweet”.

Strands of fungus in your soil are like getting a gold star in soil health.  If your soil is truly healthy then this fungus will grow in your soil.  The fungus helps spread nutrients around and also helps the plants to absorb those nutrients.  Congratulations!

Indicator Plants

What in the world is that?

It seems that you can tell the health of your soil by the weeds that show up in your yard and garden.

Different plants thrive in different conditions.  If you have an abundance of a particular weed, it should tell you a lot about your yard. Remember that weeds are not a problem but rather a symptom.  Treat the problem and the weeds will often (but not always) go elsewhere.

Here are some examples:

• Moss, Mullein, Wild Daisies:  acidic soil lacking in nutrients

• Chicory:  rich soil, possibly alkaline and compacted

• Plantain:  compacted soil lacking in nutrients

• Dandelion or burdock:  compacted soil, lacking nutrients

• Crabgrass:  compacted soil that lacks calcium

• Purslane:  high phosphorus

• Dock:  wet soil

• Fragile Fern:  dry ground

• Lamium:  high nitrogen

• Centaurea:  high potassium

• Wood Sorrel:  high magnesium and low calcium

To be absolutely sure of your problem, send a soil sample to your local extension service or testing company.

Moss Gardens

Moss . . . it appears in random places in your yard, sidewalk and other unexpected places.  You try to get rids of it but it keeps coming back.  What do you do?

 Embrace it!!  Learn to see the beauty of moss and even create a garden to celebrate it.

 Moss loves acidic soil and once established, it can be fairly drought-tolerant.  In fact, it makes a great ground cover to help retain moisture for other plants.  It usually grows best in consistently moist areas and in the shade.

 There are many varieties of moss that can provide different colors, textures and heights.  Imagine putting out squares of Scottish and Irish moss to make a checker board in your yard.

 Moss would also be a perfect base for a child’s fairy garden.

 Do a bit of research to see what would work best for your and have fun!

 We found a business on the internet that specializes in moss and would be a big help for planning your moss garden.  While we’ve never used their services, Moss Acres in Honesdale, PA has a lot of information.  Tell us about your moss garden!

 If you still want to get rid of your moss, try spreading lime and aerating your soil.

Rock Gardens

Do you have a part of your yard where nothing will grow? Think about putting in a rock garden.

Once established, these low maintenance gardens can be a real conversation starter.

Most Rock gardens are based around plants that are tough and have few needs.

Take the rocks from other parts of your yard or find them in a deserted area where it's permissible to collect them. Make sure they haven't been in an area where they've been contaminated by chemicals from passing automobiles or industrial areas.

Spread them out or piled them up in a way that looks artistic because remember the rocks themselves will be part of the beauty of your garden.

Put a bit of sandy soil in between the rocks and then install your plants as you would in any other garden. Make sure to give them sufficient water and nutrients until they are established and then sit back and watch them grow.

It is also possible to have a rock garden in the shade. You would need to look at different plants and here is where you can also make use of moss. Most covered rocks can be gorgeous and when they're surrounded by woodland plants it can be beautiful. Since woodlands are often moist you have a whole different range of plants to choose from.

Here are some plant suggestions for different conditions. Use your imagination and enjoy a different kind of garden.

 Shade:

• Pulmonaria

• Bleeding Heart

• Japanese Painted Fern

• Heuchera

• Ajuga

• Liriope

• Big Root Geranium

• Lamium

Sun:

• Delosperma

• Alyssum

• Creeping Sedum

• Hens and Chicks

• Creeping Thyme

• Ajuga

• Lavender

• Nepeta

Rain Gardens: a Drainage Solution

If you have water issues on your property you may want to consider planting a Rain Garden.

 You’re probably wondering what is that?  A rain garden is a garden comprised of plants that like wet soil and will use more than the normal amount of ground water.  A well-designed rain garden will keep excess ground water in one place while the plants suck up the water. A rain garden should help overall to reduce standing water and muddy areas in your yard.

 There are a few results that come with this:

•  The muddy areas in your yard will be dryer than before.

• You have plants that won’t die from issues normally bothering plants such as root rot.

• These plants help prevent erosion from the water.

• Most rain garden plants can also survive some periods of drought.

There are herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees that can help you out.  Here a a short list but there are so many more.

• Herbaceous Plants: Joe Pye Weed, Horsetail, Ligularia, Marsh Marigold, Lily, Blue Flag Iris, Cardinal Flower, Trumpet Vine, Lily of the Valley, Sweet Woodruff, Ferns and many Ornamental Grasses

• Shrubs: Black Chokeberry, Winterberry Holly, Inkberry Holly, Pussywillow, Clethra, Red-Twig Dogwood, Bottlebrush Buckeye, Sugarshack Buttonbush, Rose of Sharon, Beautyberry, Forsythia

• Trees: Willow, Catalpa, Swamp Oak, Red Maple, Pawpaw, River Birch, Persimmon, Hornbeam, Magnolia

 To set up a rain garden, choose your location.  Look for a place where water accumulates or runs off during heavy rain.  The soil needs to be very porous so dig deep – at least a foot – and mix in an equal part of sand to the existing soil.  It should also be rich so mix in some compost and topsoil too if needed. Remember that sand doesn’t provide nutrients to the plants so the 50% of the ground that is dirt needs to be very fertile.

 If there’s normally nowhere for the water to run off, you want to contain it around your water-loving plantings.  Grade the ground to accomplish this. Keep in mind that if you’ve created a pond, you either need to regrade, add more plants or add more sand – possibly to a larger area.

 You may discover some new varieties of plants that you hadn’t considered before.

 For a more extensive list of plants, please visit https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/plants-for-damp-or-wet-areas/

Vegetable Gardening When You Don’t Have a Garden

Many of us just love gardening.  There’s nothing quite like getting your hands into the soil and nurturing those living plants.  Even better is when you grow something you can eat, providing food for you, your family and friends.

If you don’t have a garden, that presents a serious challenge.

One quick and easy solution is to see if your town or neighboring areas have community gardens.  For a small fee, you can rent a plot of land and grow your own garden.  Check with your town hall or county offices to see what your options are.

Many multi-unit dwellings provide a bit of outdoor space for planters.  Have you considered turning your balcony or patio into a vegetable garden?

This will take some planning because space is at a premium.  You will probably need to space your plants a lot closer together than in a home garden.  This means you will need to provide more resources than normal including fertilizer and water.  If you mix plants, be sure they are compatible.  For example, alliums (onions and garlic) don’t always do well with other plants.  Root crops may suffer for lack of space.

Do your research and have fun with your tiny garden.  I’m sure you can grow more than you think.

A Sweet Potato is NOT a Yam

For some reason, someone wanted to make it clear that sweet potatoes are not true potatoes. Sweet potatoes are called potatoes simply because the tuber resembles a potato and grows in a similar way. 

Over time, people decided it would be a good idea to call them ’yams’ to differentiate them from true potatoes but this causes another problem.  There is a tuber called a yam and sweet potatoes are not related to true yams.

A yam is a tuber native to Africa.  It is versatile and used as a staple food.  The outside is dark brown and the inside is white.

The standard sweet potato has dark orange skin with bright orange flesh.  There are other varieties of different colors with different tastes, but none of them are related to yams.

Odds are that you’ve never laid eyes on a yam because we just don’t eat them here.

So next time you hear someone call a sweet potato by the wrong name, you can teach them the interesting difference.

The Potato Rainbow

Do you know all the colors of the Potato Rainbow?

Potatoes come in more colors than your standard grocery store fare.  In the grocery store, you may see white potatoes with brown skins, yellow potatoes or red-skinned potatoes, but you can find much more than that.

While you may have to look pretty hard to find them, you should try.  There really are potatoes to match almost all of the colors of the rainbow.  The exceptions are orange and green.  Well, you can find green potatoes but those are ones that have been exposed to light too long and have started to develop chlorophyll.  When the chlorophyll develops, so do some naturally-occurring toxins so you shouldn’t eat these.

There are no orange potatoes but if you want the color, you can use sweet potatoes which are neither potatoes nor yams, but that’s another article…

You can find red, pink, yellow, blue and purple potatoes.  Some of these will just have colored skin with whitish flesh but there are varieties that have color throughout the tuber.  Some of them taste amazing and are far more nutritious than the standard white potato.

Check it out!