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Good soil provides moisture, nutrition and support for crops. It’s essential to take care of your soil to guarantee a great harvest.
Any soil type can be improved using one simple technique.
In this short video we show you how to identify what type of soil you have, and how to improve it.
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I have poorly draining soil composed mostly of heavily weathered shale locally known as siltstone. Lime and compost help as does planting dikon
Thank you very much for another informative video – good advice in a straightforward concise manner.
We have sandy, acid soil which grows bracken in abundance so a good dose of lime is applied for the brassicas. I am able to produce about 20 cubic yards of compost a year so I follow Charles Dowding's principles and use minimal cultivation.
The vegetables are grown where there were three former stock tunnels so it is a bit higgledy piggledy but it seems to work.
I don't do videos but you can see photos here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/norwichhouse-oakridge/albums/72157655792756058
Always good to review the basics — good job.
Last spring I moved to south central Ohio. The soil here is quite rich, as evidenced by the area's agricultural industry. It was surprising to see just how clayish the soil was after tilling my new garden; "How am I going to grow anything in this?" It was cost prohibitive to treat the entire garden with peat moss, so mixing together 2 parts peat to 1 part composted cow manure, I treated the immediate area for each of the larger plants, and the rows where beans were going. In addition, I covered the garden with perforate cardboard and grass clippings. That turned out to be a boon. The summer was a bit on the dry side, and I spent a lot of time out of state. The cardboard and clippings helped to control weeds and retain moisture in the soil when I wan't there to water. the end result was stunning. Lots of beans, tomatoes, squashes and 90 lbs of sweet potatoes from only 8 mounds! There was more to harvest than I could use or put up for the winter. The excess was shared with neighbors. This fall, I covered the garden with leaves that will be turned into the ground in the spring.
Compost bins provide regular feeding to my raised beds. Although the partially composted material may appear as clumps when added, by the end of the growing season, the worms have transformed the compost into a rich soil devoid of all signs of the original compost.
I agree with most everything, but I cringe every time you advise to "dig something in" on your videos. In this video, after you put such a good amount of compost on your garden and let it sit over winter. Then in the spring you go and totally disturb the soil by digging it in, destroying the worm homes and the mycelium network.
no digging for me – mulch, mulch and more mulch improves my soil easily!
I'm new here. Thanks for teaching everything. I want a place to homestead by springtime.
Great informative video as usual. Had previously transformed my entire garden a few years ago into large boxed raised beds for the reason of soil enhancement.
The no secret I use is grass cuttings & fall leaves.
I mow lawns using a grass catcher, put the green grass in the walkway between the raised beds. I rake & collect leaves in the fall placing them on top & mixing in with the rotted grass.
After growing season – I put this mulch on top of each raised bed up to 4 " deep of more then till it into the soil to a 9" depth. End result is loose loam wormy soil with spectacular results especially with peppers, broccoli, tomato's, turnips, eggplant & beans.
I have clay, clay soil in Calgary, Alberta Canada…..The way to look after soil in Calgary would be to put peat moss, composted manure of some sort( non burning) , and compost…. It would be a good idea to pick an area for growing..,make sure you are not going to keep walking on the bed. This will pack down the soil…spread a board or plank over the patch you wish to stand, kneel, or work on….. Now comes the fun part, formulating the amendments…..I usually make a mix of one part composted manure, one part peat moss, one part compost garden variety. I use a 5 gallon soap bucket as my measure, any sort of container will do. Go to the furthest part of your garden bed, lay the plank or board Dow, dig on spade depth down, and gently lift the soil out, not turning it too much. Take a garden fork and loosen the sub soil, and then place one to two or more buckets of goodies in the trench. Pull your board down one row and repeat, until you have completed the bed. Leave the bed roughly dug in the fall, allowing for the frost to break up the hard clumps of soil. In the spring time, go through the garden , make sure the soil is level, and well dug…..now mark rows and stuff plant seeds, and use mulch …water…..the mulch you can use is dried grass, straw, and other things not treated by herbicides. If you treat your grass, please wait until the fifth cut…….I recommend that people should consider planting a winter rye or wheat in the fall to increase the organic matter subsequently. Over the years in the fall.please look up back to Eden gardening, or lasagna style gardening. The first year of bed prep is always the hardest in the micro organisms, but years after, there will be a drastic improvement…..as time goes on with perennial crops etc, top dressing the bed with mulch and compost is the only real additions will be needed. Do not despare if it takes about 3-4 years to grow soil and to see returns..,,,,
What a great informative video of improving different soil types this is. Soils differ so much from garden to garden so we all know how important improving the soil can be. I have a rich loamy soil operating a three year rotation of raised beds and use garden lime on the beds for brassicas when needed. Leaf mould and compost are my main ingredients for improvement as I have stopped getting farmyard manure because of the worry of chemicals they use as mentioned in the video. But every couple of years I spread a good quota of 6X Concentrated manure.
A great video though and thanks again.
great video! you should check out my indoor garden in nyc, winter time here. and i still grow!
Thank you for the very informative video! We have very sandy land here not much soil to work with, any suggestions for improving our soil? This last spring we tilled our garden area and added manure and top soil, but didn't have much luck. We do have chickens and goats and they have lots of waste, should I be incorporating this into the soil or composting? I have no idea where to begin, any suggestions? Thank you! New homesteader and learning as we go along. Subscribed and love your videos!
thanks for sharing
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i have heavy clay on a poorly cultivated weed ridden plot. I have removed as many perennial weeds as possible, dug out 4 good sized beds for starters, gotten a load of good topsoil to establish raised beds and removed as much dead (grey and blue) subsoil clay as i can (clay used around my comfrey patch to reduce weeds growing around them until established). I will install good quality edging in spring (not sure what to paint the timber but ill figure it out). I have sown green manure over the beds overwinter to try fix more nitrogen and increase humus. Im also composting like crazy to improve soil more, and have an enormous pile of leaves for leafmould. these will take some time but its a long term (life!) project! I keep compost warm in winter buy adding some warm water now and then to try keep the bacteria running!
thanks for the video, great information.
Our soil is almost all heavy clay, currently almost boggy after being frozen and then snowed on before a brief thaw. I do try to add organic matter along the yard edges and where other perennial plants grow, but, for the most part, I grow in raised beds and containers where I can more easily control the growing media. As always, great information.
Our local zoo sells what it calls Zoo Poopy-Doo every spring by the truckload. It is well-rotted elephant poo along with the straw that they put in the cages for them. It's a win-win if you have a way to transport a truckload or partial truckload from the zoo to your garden.
Just curious, the CDs hanging? Is this to deter crows?
I have some chalky soil, would blending it with compost give a good soil? I have to use planters as the only soil areas are steep banks. Anyone thst cab help would be great.
This year I'll have 1000 + year old grass compost soil 😀
When you fertilize the ground for winter don't forget to put mulch on top of the compost and put at least 10 inches of compost ! Let it rot well over the whole winter! In spring, water well remove mulch and plant right in. When the plants reach 6 inches put the mulch back on for protection of your soil
should see my clay… it's like trying to grow things in pottery.
I am in north Washington State and have volcanic ash mixes with clay. It is highly nutrient rich, but makes cement. Compost mixed in works wonders for it and mulch on top is necessary but extremely beneficial
Hi, I have soil that is rock hard and I am planning to make an in-ground garden bed there. How do I make the soil so water can at least go through it?
silt Soil can you help me what type of timber trees can I plant ? – thanks
Thank you for the always helpful videos!
Last year I built a new raised bed and filled it with about 50% composted soil (from my compost pile) and 50% top soil, and all my tomato starts died. I thought maybe it was the late frost that killed them. (It was a weird year here in Southeastern Pennsylvania.) But then I just transplanted a plant from my garden into a container using 30% store bought compost and 70% potting soil and the same thing happened.
They withered, wilted, and dried up within 2 days. Is there a top soil to compost ratio that you recommend when creating a new raised bed? Or do you think something else went wrong? I plan on building another one next year and don't want to make the same mistake. Thanks so much!
Presently my soil looks like Dried Sand, what can I do.
Hey, does your app have a ‘preferred soil’ section? I’m planning a future garden and I’m using the app (which is freaking awesome btw) but it would be great if I could group crops based on soil type and make a bed that mixes well with that.
whats the best soil makeup for giant sunflowers?
I have clay soil I use grass clippings and home made compost. If I can get hold of wood chips I would use them too.