Fireplaces and wood stoves produce a steady supply of ash through the winter, and gardeners often wonder whether that gray powder belongs in the compost pile or spread across the vegetable beds. Wood ash has a long history as a garden soil amendment, and it still earns a place in many yards when applied with […]
Manure tea is a liquid fertilizer made by steeping aged animal manure in water, and it delivers the same nutrients as a dry soil amendment in a form plants can use within days. Gardeners have relied on the method for generations because it turns a low-cost farm byproduct into a fast-acting feed for vegetables, flowers,
Manure tea is a liquid fertilizer made by steeping aged animal manure in water, and it delivers the same nutrients as a dry soil amendment in a form plants can use within days. Gardeners have relied on the method for generations because it turns a low-cost farm byproduct into a fast-acting feed for vegetables, flowers,
Manure tea is a liquid fertilizer made by steeping aged animal manure in water, and it delivers the same nutrients as a dry soil amendment in a form plants can use within days. Gardeners have relied on the method for generations because it turns a low-cost farm byproduct into a fast-acting feed for vegetables, flowers,
Preparing a planting bed starts with one decision: what soil goes into it. Turn over an existing yard and you have worked with topsoil for free; build a raised bed, fill containers, or repair a patchy lawn and you will be buying soil by the bag or by the truckload. Topsoil and garden soil are
When a lawn or garden bed struggles, thin or poor-quality topsoil is often the cause. Topsoil is the uppermost layer of the earth’s crust, the zone where plant roots, turf included, take up water and nutrients. Lawns grow well in 4 to 6 inches of it, while vegetable crops need more. Knowing how deep the
Green manure is plant material grown as a cover crop and turned into the soil to improve its nutritional value and texture. Cover crops are fast-growing plants sown to cover bare soil, and when gardeners dig them in while they are still alive, the decomposing tissue returns nutrients, softens compaction, and feeds the soil food
Soil compaction control begins with a single measurement: dry density. The core cutter method is a standard field test used to determine the dry density of compacted cohesive soils, and it is one of the fastest ways to verify that a layer meets its specification before the next lift is placed. The test drives a
Nitrogen is a key macronutrient for plants, vital because it is a major component of chlorophyll, the compound that lets plants perform photosynthesis. Every gardener eventually faces the question of how to replace the nitrogen that crops and rain remove from the soil, and the answer usually involves a mix of organic amendments, cover crops,
Garden lime, also called agricultural lime, is a rock powder ground from limestone and used to raise the pH of acidic soil. Gardeners describe the result as sweetening the soil: a sour, acidic bed becomes more alkaline, and plants that struggled suddenly gain access to nutrients that were locked away. Because soil chemistry changes slowly,
