Is there something to complain about in your garden soil? Then don't expect the ornamental and useful plants to use the inferior soil. Growth depressions and crop failures are inevitable. This guide explains how to improve poor garden soil with simple means.
Poor soil can be enriched with compost
What distinguishes good garden soil?
Ornamental and useful plants favor a balanced mixture of loam, clay, sand and humus. If these components are perfectly coordinated, a busy soil life pulsates in this garden soil as a basic requirement for magnificent, profitable growth. High-quality garden soil has these properties to offer:
- Loose, finely crumbly and structurally stable quality
- Rich in important nutrients and valuable trace elements
- Deep and well drained for unhindered drainage
- Fresh, damp to moderately dry without the threat of waterlogging
- Optimum pH from 5.5 to 7.5
You can use a hand sample to determine the exact type of soil. Form a handful of garden soil into a ball and then roll it into a sausage-like roll. Sandy soil crumbles and cannot be formed into a sausage at all. Clay soil is smooth to the touch, won't stick to your palms, and won't fall apart. Clay is smooth and sticky, forms a stable roll, and has a glossy surface.
Upgrading inferior garden soil - this is how it works
If the soil in your garden does not come close to meeting the recommended requirements, you should improve the soil. This can be done with simple means. How to do it right:
- Too sandy garden soil: enrich with compost soil or bark humus
- Compacted clay: improve with a third each of compost and quartz sand
- Waterlogged loam: dig deep with two spades, enrich the excavation with mature compost and sand
Only a few plants can thrive in acidic garden soil, such as rhododendrons and ericaceous plants. You can easily determine the pH value of your garden soil with a test set from the hardware store or garden center. If the result is below 5.5, lime the garden soil. You can use this opportunity to improve the absorption capacity for nutrients by raking in the surface of primary rock flour, perlite (37.51€) or coconut hum and pouring it in.
tips
Garden soil enters into a promising partnership with coconut soil. Tomatoes, vegetables and ornamental plants benefit from a mix of coconut hum and loamy garden soil. Mix the excavation from a planting pit with coconut fibers in a ratio of 1:1. The result is a wonderfully airy, loose substrate with excellent water retention, perfect for all young plants.