One Dirty Four Letter Word

The word is "soil" and it is, without a doubt, your most valuable commodity in the garden. When soil is great, it makes gardening so much easier. When it is awful, plants are doomed to lackluster production and mediocrity.

Soil quality and the vigor of your plants are directly proportional. In other words, good soil results in outstanding growth; bad soil results in weak growth. Pathetic plants are, in turn, more vulnerable to pathogens and pests. I have been careful to respect and appreciate the soil, so much so that it was a major selling point of a home I bought many years ago.

More than a few eyebrows were raised when my wife and I were looking for a home to buy. My wife toured the home with the realtor and expressed that she liked what she saw. The realtor stopped in mid-sentence after several minutes of the tour and asked, "Didn't I see your husband around here?" She responded, "He's in the backyard. He just gave me the thumbs up, too."

The House for Horticulture

A room for crafting and a quaint breakfast nook? That's great and all, but I'm a gardener. I think like one. After sinking my spade in a few places on the property that warm, breezy afternoon, I knew I had found a place to call home. I discovered that the gardener who used to live on the property was as passionate about growing plants as I was. He religiously dumped manure on the land for approximately 50 years. He did himself a tremendous favor, and as it turned out, me as well. The soil was dark, nutrient-rich and crumbled in my hands like moist, chocolate birthday cake. This little corner of the earth was ours, where all would grow - in spite of the trampling most of my plants endured from my boisterous, bounding Rottweiler.

The Characteristics of Great Soil

Great soil has high organic content that holds water, air and a tremendous amount of nutrients. It feeds plants slowly and steadily. It also has ample space between soil particles through which roots can easily pass, water can drain and nutrients can diffuse. Earthworms and other beneficial organisms thrive in this sort of soil, increasing friability, or looseness. These little guys leave behind castings with valuable nitrogen as they take organic material from the surface into the sub soil to be broken down.

Investing in Your Soil

Amend your soil by introducing organic material. Humus - the stuff that is left after organic material decomposes that many gardeners call "Black Gold" - is a powerful restructuring component. It pulls soil together, helps sandy soil retain water and aids dense clay soils in opening up air pockets for greater drainage. Adding rich humus to already fertile, loamy soil isn't a bad idea either. A D.I.Y. method of cultivating your own humus is with a compost heap.

Homemade Humus

A quality compost heap should have equal parts nitrogen-rich materials like grass clippings, manure and vegetable scraps to carbon-laden substances like dried leaves, twigs, straw and newspaper.

The smaller the pieces in your heap, the better. (This is a great opportunity to take full advantage of a STIHL shredder vac.)

The pile should be at least 3'x3'x3' or 27 cubic feet.

The heap should be damp like a sponge, but never soggy.

Compost heaps benefit from oxygen. If it is deprived of air, bacteria will overtake the pile. A foul smell will ensue. One of the best ways to construct a well-ventilated pile is to set it on a wooden pallet. Enclose the heap with chicken wire. Affix a PVC pipe riddled with drilled one-inch holes to the center of the pallet to penetrate the center of the heap. All of these components ensure exposure to air - keeping bacteria down and assisting in a quicker production of rich, dark humus.

For advice, the right equipment and protective apparel to suit all your gardening needs, visit your local servicing STIHL Dealer.

See you soon with more helpful tips from GardenPower and Crader Distributing!

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