Ms. Eudora’s Garden Tool Blog

With the winter months slowly but surely creeping upon us, now is the time to begin and prepare your soil for Winter Protection. Keeping your soil rich and fertile will eliminate many gardening problems.  Because soil is constantly changing, getting and keeping it in its best condition will also encourage good healthy plant growth.  To improve soil quality, adding manure in the fall and tilling it under will not only add nitrogen to it but it will also raise its nutrient level.  Adding organic compost such as garden wastes and shredded leaves will also add to the soils structure. Since soils range differently from region to region, knowing what type you have will help you to determine what types of amendments it needs to help make it rich and fertile. Sandy, Clay. Silt and loam are the main types of soil and each type may and can be found in nearly every region.

1. Sandy: the soil is coarse and grainy and dries out quickly
2. Clay: is very thick dries to be hard, solid and clumpy, holding water
3. Silty: is a mixture of both sand and clay
4. Loam: considered to be the ideal soil mixture, it is rich and fertile and it drains well

Loam is the type of soil that every gardener should try and work to achieve.  When the right amount of amendments is added over time, your soil can become an ideal soil also.

Always try and use winter mulch on the bare ground spots of your garden, winter mulching will help to prevent soil erosion.  The use of pine bark, wood chips or pine needles will help with the soil temperature and water loss while reducing the freezing and thawing of the soil.  Adding fertilizers (only after all your plants have died or gone dormant) and tilling it under along with a compost pile or manures will also add to the soils improvement.

To improve the potassium levels for the soil add manufacturers suggested amount of granite meal, cottonseed meal, kelp meal or other synthetic fertilizers.  Remember soil amendments such as organic matters and fertilizers are added to the soil to improve it conditions.  In the spring your ground will need to be tilled again and you winter compost added before you begin your spring planting.

tags] Winter Soil Protection[/tags]