Are you planning on building a garden? That’s excellent! Every home must have a beautiful garden. It’s also such a pity to see so much space goes to waste however; given the lifestyle and the busy schedules that we have, not all of us have the time to invest in a garden. During this pandemic, many of us have tried to constructively utilize the time we’ve had on our hands. Many of us have taken up to cooking, furniture building, gardening, etc. So, if you’re planning to start your garden and you’re wondering how to go about it; then is the soil in the backyard enough or not? Can you amend the place in the backyard? Whatever your concern is regarding growing your garden, don’t worry you’ve reached the right place. With years of research and experience, we have a few tips and helpful recipes that would make your gardening experience pleasurable, so keep reading.
I would like to share with you a very simple recipe that will help you to create soil that is nutrient-rich, making your plans extremely grateful.
Making soil mix
- Aeration – ¼ that could include lava rock, rice hulls, and pumice stone
- ¼ Peat Moss Sphagnum
- Native soil ¼
- Compost ¼
The ingredients mentioned above will be the base. You can also buy some compose from your local gardening shop, or if you already have made, you’re homemade compose then, it would be an excellent base.
For every two cubic foot soil, you should consider adding the following, it will help in creating the soil base.
- Native soil – 5 gallons
- Compost – 5 gallons
- Aeration – 5 gallons
- Peat moss sphagnum – 5 gallons
In addition
Let’s consider that base is ready, you can now add certain additional nutrients that will help the plants. For one cubic foot of soil add half a cup of the following;
- Crustacean meal
- Kelp meal
- Karanja/ Neem cake
Minerals
Post adding the above extras you can also add minerals. For one cubic foot of soil, you can add 1 Cup of the following;
- Flour of oyster shell
- Gypsum
- Dust of glacial rock
- Basalt
Testing the soil
We recommend getting the soil tested, because this will give you a better idea of what it may or may not be lacking. Amending the soil will be much easier post-testing.
For example; we had decided to begin planting on a particular piece of land directly without having it tested. However, we did go ahead and test the soil. The results came back, showing the soil did not have organic materials as well as high nitrogen. Upon seeing this, we did make a good amount of compost, covered it with mulch, planted trees that would fix the nitrogen in the location.
Do send your soil out to test and once the results are back you will have a better idea of what needs to be done with the soil. In addition, the test will also show you nutrients that may be sealed in the soil. If you happen to find out of such hidden treasures, add some more nutrients and allow it to unlock from the soil, giving your plans plenty of nutrients to grow.
Well, that’s all for now folks. I do hope that you have got more clarity on how to make garden soil. Happy gardening!