Written by Tammy updated 11th September 2024.
Soil health is vital to the success of our garden.
Have you ever felt frustrated thinking why does everything die or why can't I get things to thrive?
You've heard the expression 'from the ground up'? When it comes to gardening it really is quite literally from the ground up.
Like ourselves, soil is a living thing, it needs nourishment. Without good nutrition we become unwell, susceptible to illness, sickness and disorders and we fail to thrive.
The principles are exactly the same for our soil.
For our gardens to thrive and be productive we need to first focus on the health and nutrition of our soil.
Plants take in nutrients from the soil to be able to grow, and somewhere along the line those nutrients need to be replenished.
If you kept eating everything out of the pantry it would eventually be empty, there'd be nothing left to eat leaving you hungry, it would need to be restocked.
Feeding our soil, like restocking our pantry is easy and needs to be done regularly.
It's as simple as spreading a good layer of organic matter like animal manure, composted veggie scraps and green waste, or some bales of straw mulch around the garden. Meat meal-based products like Blood and Bone are fantastic too.
Don't forget Legumes. These amazing little plants have the clever ability to fix nitrogen back into the soil, throw in a crop of soybeans, peas or broad beans, let them mature then dig them back through into the soil.
Doing any combination of these things is going to pay you back ten-fold.
Feeding the beneficial insects and microbials within your soil is what keeps the soil nourished and in turn allows it to feed your plants.
Healthy soil equals a healthy garden. đđȘŽ
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