How to Establish a Clover Lawn

Author
By SHANNON COWAN

Why the humble clover plant is infusing conventional lawns with more than good luck.

Ah, the backyard lawn, that controversial patch of greenery adored by some and shunned by others. Restricted to the aristocracy before mechanical mowers made them possible for humbler folk, lawns have become the norm of boulevards and subdivisions alike. But how ‘green’ are they?

On the one hand, lawns require large amounts of water to survive. They are monoculture crops that provide minimal benefits to nature. On the other hand, lawns are ground covers that can prevent the encroachment of unwanted or invasive weeds. They also generate oxygen, provide a lush carpet for children’s barefoot play, and offer a pleasant setting for active summer living—badminton anyone?

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However you feel about lawns, one thing is certain: you can make yours more sustainable by considering clover. Before chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, the humble clover plant was a common resident in backyard lawns across the country. Almost everyone’s had some clover growing in it—and some lawns were entirely made of clover. There were good reasons for this.

Not only is clover a leguminous plant, meaning that it can fix nitrogen from the air and release it slowly to the other plants in your lawn, it also stays green longer and needs less water than conventional grasses. Whether you are establishing a new lawn or maintaining an old one, there are great reasons to add clover to your mix.

Benefits of a Clover Lawn

• Clover is affordable and easy to grow.
• A nitrogen-fixing plant, clover brings nutrients to your soil and requires no fertilization. When mixed with other grasses, clover can reduce or eliminate the need for regular fertilizing.
• Clover is drought tolerant and grows despite lack of water once established. This contrasts starkly with traditional lawn grasses, which usually need watering all season long.
• Full sun or partial shade? Clover is tolerant of many conditions and outcompetes other weeds. Some of the newer micro-clovers are even more tolerant of shade and can grow in high-traffic areas.
• Clover is versatile. Add to a regular lawn to help invigorate tired turf or plant a full clover lawn on its own for lush, year-round greenery (depending on your geographical location).
• Wildlife such as bees and deer love clover. If you’d rather not have bees visiting, simply mow your clover before it blooms.
• Say ‘good-bye’ to burn marks—clover will not turn yellow as quickly as a regular lawn when pets are around.

To be sure if a clover lawn is right for you, contact your local garden center to ask about the success of clover in your region. Most landscape professionals recommend a ratio of 15-20% clover seed to 80-85% drought-tolerant grass seed suitable for your area and location. Since clover is not as hardwearing as grass, a mix ensures your lawn will withstand foot traffic and won’t need regular reseeding. However, new micro-clovers developed in the last few decades offer more resilient varieties that many people are choosing to sow in much higher concentrations—up to 100%. Whatever mix you choose, the balance of clover and grasses will change over time and reach an equilibrium that works well for your soil type and local conditions.

Which Type is Best?

The two varieties most commonly used in lawns are Dutch (or dwarf) white clover (Trifolium repens) and more recently, micro-clover (Trifolium repens var. Pipolina, for example). Here’s what you need to know about these options:

Dutch white clover:

• Usually needs reseeding after 2-3 years.
• Stays green all year round (depending on geographical area).
• Blooms when mature, providing food for bees.
• Does best with 4-6 hours of sun daily.
• Seeds at a rate of about 1lb per 1000 square feet.

Micro-clover:

• Is fairly shade tolerant, though does best in areas with sun.
• Can be mowed shorter than white clover.
• Is tolerant to more foot traffic.
• Produces about 90% fewer blooms than Dutch white clover.
• Turns brown in winter due to dormancy period.
• Seeds at a rate of about 1lb to 300-600 square feet.

Things to Know Before You Start

Clover does best when planted in clay or sandy loam soils with a pH between 6 and 7. To find out your soil’s pH, use a soil test kit or a pH meter. If your soil isn’t in this desirable range, you can adjust the pH using lime (to make your soil more alkaline), or peat moss (to make your soil more acidic).

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The best time to plant clover is after the last frost in spring, when rains will help you establish new crop and competing grasses haven’t yet taken hold of available nutrients. Fall planting may also be a possibility if you live in an area with mild autumn weather. Temperatures should remain above 40˚F (4˚C) for the clover to take hold before winter.

As noted above, lawn specialists recommend using both clover and grass seed to establish the healthiest lawn possible. However, don’t spread these different types of seeds together. Since clover seed is so small and dense, and usually clumps together at the bottom of the spreader or seed bag, spreading with grass seed usually results in uneven coverage. Instead, determine your desired ratio of clover to grass and spread separately.

Planting Your Clover Lawn

Overseeding a Clover Lawn:

To add clover to an already established lawn, begin by mowing close to the ground and raking out any thatch that developed over the previous growing season. If your lawn needs aerating, now is the time. Your clover seed will benefit if sown after a thorough aeration. Mix your chosen clover seed with fine sand, sawdust, or soil, and broadcast over desired area. If you are seeding a large expanse, you may want to use a broadcast spreader on the smallest setting. However, keep in mind that many spreaders don’t accommodate seeds as small as clover.

Once planted, water your clover seed every day for two weeks. This will give the seeds adequate moisture for sprouting and help them get a good start in their new location. Be sure to keep deer and other clover-eating animals off the lawn.

The key to giving clover a boost over competing grasses is to cut back on nitrogen-based fertilizers. Since clover fixes its own nitrogen, it will thrive even if this nutrient is lacking (while grasses usually won’t). Phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) are important, however, so choose a fertilizer with a low nitrogen component in favor of P and K.

Planting a New Clover Lawn:

If you are establishing a new lawn, prepare your soil several weeks in advance by removing weeds, stones, and other debris. Rake or till the top layer of soil to loosen the substrate and then water the area to encourage any remaining weeds to sprout. A day or two before planting your lawn, remove any newly sprouted weeds and rake to a smooth, even texture.

Mix your clover seed with sand, sawdust, or fine soil to make spreading easier. Use a broadcast spreader (if you can find one that accommodates clover) for large areas to ensure even distribution. Do not fertilize. Follow with grass seed if using.

Rake the planted area to lightly cover the seeds. They won’t sprout if buried too deeply. Compress with a roller or by walking over the area. Water regularly until established.

Before trimming your lawn for the first time, wait until the clover drops its seeds, and then cut fairly close, about 2″ from the ground. This will also favor the clover over the grass, and help the clover plants establish their roots. Leave the clippings on the lawn (they are a valuable mulch). Once the clover begins to thrive, you can reduce the mowing by letting your lawn grow to 3″. You can always overseed with clover if the grass starts taking over.

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Other Things To Consider

• Never use herbicides on a clover lawn. Your clover won’t survive!
• A new clover lawn won’t usually flower until after its first year. After this time, mow once weekly to control bloom coverage (if desired).
• If you don’t already have clover growing somewhere in your area, you may need to inoculate the soil to prepare it for the clover seed. You can buy inoculant from your local garden center. Mix into your prepared soil or broadcast with your clover seed at planting time. Some clover seed comes encased in inoculant.

Adding clover to your existing lawn or planting a new lawn with clover in the mix will help reduce the impacts of your little patch of green. With fewer requirements and care, and more time for enjoyment, a clover lawn is a natural choice for your overall sustainability solution.

Pin for later:

~~
Shannon Cowan is the blog editor at Eartheasy.com. She lives on six acres of land with her husband, daughters, and backyard poultry flock.
~

For further information log on website :
http://learn.eartheasy.com/2017/04/how-to-establish-a-clover-lawn/

Mulch Your Garden to Beat the Heat

Author
By SHANNON COWAN

Adding an organic layer to your vegetable garden also saves water and reduces your work load…

Long before the word “mulch” entered the common gardening lexicon, American gardener Ruth Stout was praising its benefits, saying, “The unmulched garden looks to me like some naked thing, which for one reason or another would be better off with a few clothes on.” Famous for such books as How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back and Gardening Without Work, Stout advocated a no-till, no-weed, low-water method of gardening, which she sustained for more than 45 years using mulch, and lots of it.

Today most gardeners understand that mulch benefits the vegetable patch. When placed directly on the soil surface, mulch materials reduce evaporative water loss. This keeps the top few inches of soil, where most root activity occurs, moist and cool for plants otherwise stressed by hot temperatures at root level. Mulch also hinders weeds, eliminating them completely if applied thickly enough. Additionally, mulch adds nutrient-rich organic matter to the soil over time, creating a well-structured loam perfect for growing vegetables. Yet despite the many benefits of mulching, many gardeners don’t use enough.

If you need to protect your garden during a heat wave, mulching is essential. Mulching will help you conserve water while increasing crop yields since plant roots stay moist. Here are some common mulches worth considering.

Mulching Materials

Straw

Straw is the golden yellow stalk of cereal grains cut from the fields after crops like barley, wheat, and oats have been harvested. Most often used for animal bedding, straw is light in weight, fluffy in texture, hollow-stemmed and highly insulating, making it an excellent winter mulch for crops that stay in the ground past the last frost date.

Because it is primarily a waste material with the seeds removed, straw is also less likely to sprout when used in the garden as mulch. Despite this claim to fame, however, some straw invariably comes alive after a few rainy days. Mulching with a thick layer (4-6 inches or more) usually means the sprouting is short-lived. Another way to eliminate sprouting is to first use the straw as animal bedding for waterfowl (primarily ducks) who like nothing better than to pick out all the seeds (and bugs) for breakfast.

If you live in a moist climate where slugs proliferate, beware of adding straw mulch too early in the season, when rainy weather turns straw into a perfect slug habitat. Mulching after the weather warms and the soil begins to dry out usually addresses this problem.

Spoiled Hay

Unlike straw, hay is a crop in its own right, grown for feeding animals through the winter. Cut green and dried before bailing, hay refers to any number of cultivated grasses and legumes, and may include clover and other flowers. Many gardeners avoid mulching with hay because its seed content is often high. However, this depends on your source—when was the hay cut and what plants did it contain? Is it pure alfalfa or a blend of grasses?

Hay is worth using as mulch for several reasons. Hay has a higher nutrient content than straw and will rot more quickly, adding nitrogen and other essential nutrients to your garden. Mulches that rot quickly also have a matting effect that inhibit weed growth from below. Additionally, composted hay builds optimal soil structure, creating a spongy, loamy texture favored by vegetables—and Ruth Stout, who used a mix of spoiled hay and dried leaves for decades in her Connecticut garden, with excellent results.

To safeguard against sprouting, mulch with hay when the bail has been spoiled or is too old to use for feed purposes. This means the seeds are usually no longer viable and will sprout at a much lower rate, if at all. You can also add hay to the bottom of your mulch layer, topping with straw or another material if you are concerned.

Two more practices can eliminate problems associated with hay seeds taking over your garden. First, add a thick enough layer of hay mulch (eight inches or more) to smother weed seeds and prevent them from taking hold when they do sprout. Second, don’t till or turn the soil, which disturbs your mulch layer and exposes weed seeds to the air.

Grass clippings

If you’re like many people and have a lawn to mow, you probably have a pile of grass clippings moldering unused in your yard. Like hay, grass clippings may contain weed seeds if harvested after flowering. However, if you mow your lawn regularly and don’t treat with chemical herbicides, fungicides or fertilizers, grass clippings are an excellent source of mulch. Not only do they add important nutrients to garden soil as they break down, grass clippings also rot quickly, warming the soil as they decompose. This is a boon in the springtime when the soil is cold, but something to watch for in mid-summer when your broccoli plants prefer cool soil temperatures.

When using grass clipping for mulch on plants in mid-season, the nitrogen boost from fresh clippings can trigger a growth spurt that results in delayed flowering and fruiting for some crops like tomatoes. To reduce this possibility, let the clippings dry out and go brown before raking them up for use as mulch.

Grass clippings form a dense mat during decomposition that can choke weeds and germinating seedlings. For this reason, be careful not to cover emerging shoots with grass clippings. (They will even inhibit potatoes.) The main drawback of mulching with grass clippings is finding large enough quantities. If you have a large lawn or neighbors who want to donate to your pile, you have free mulch at your disposal.

Vegetable Waste

If you are a fan of compost, you may find this method downright sacrosanct, but its results are worth considering. Adding vegetable scraps directly to your garden via a layer of mulch on the surface of the soil may not be pretty, but it is effective. Vegetable waste adds nutrients to the soil and conserves moisture—just like any other mulch. Because it usually comes in smaller quantities, however, we add our vegetable waste over time, to the lower mulch layer. Simply lift up your hay, straw, or other mulch material and deposit your vegetable scraps directly onto the soil. By next season, the scraps will be composted and your soil will reap the benefits. You will also avoid turning and transporting your compost. Ruth Stout would be proud.

Seaweed

Depending on where you live, you may have ready access to a free source of mulch on nearby beaches or along the shoreline. Deposited on the beach by the tide, seaweed is an excellent source of garden mulch high in micronutrients. Seaweed is also free from weed seeds and, after a few days, it dries to a crispy mat that repels slugs.

Some gardeners may be concerned with the salt content of seaweed, but this has not been an issue in our experience. You can spread your seaweed out and rinse with fresh water, but we’ve never bothered.

Seaweed mulch dries out within days and shrinks considerably, so you may want to reapply an additional layer to ensure there are no bare spots of soil exposed.

Bark mulch or wood shavings

Although these woody materials don’t break down fast enough for most vegetable garden beds—and can inhibit germination if blocking the soil—they do provide benefits under certain applications. Shavings or sawdust, before or after they have been used as animal bedding, are good additions to berry beds for both inhibiting weed seeds and conserving moisture. Bark mulch can also be added to garden paths to minimize weeding and establish walkways. Cedar is best used on paths only as it is acidic and inhibits decomposition in the soil. Be aware that woody mulches are high in carbon and will use soil nitrogen to break down. If using on or near plants that require large amounts of nitrogen, be sure to supplement with an organic nitrogen fertilizer to fully meet your plants’ needs.

If using bark mulch for garden pathways or shrub beds, ask the seller about its origins and if there have been any complaints from customers. We have used some bark mulches that contained invasive horsetail seeds, and we’re still pulling up horsetail years later.

Leaves

Readily available in the fall when the changing season signals trees to shed their greenery, leaves are hard to come by in high gardening season. For this reason, spread leaves as a winter mulch to insulate your garden, increase organic matter, and prevent emerging weeds in springtime. Some leaves are more acidic than others. Depending on your source and your crop, you may need to lime the soil to compensate.

Each fall we gather and store dried maple leaves for use as a winter garden mulch and for adding to the compost through the winter months when carbon materials are hard to come by. This helps keep our winter compost balanced and less soggy. Maple leaves are low acid and, since they are large, it’s fast and easy to fill our sacks with this valued resource.

When using autumn leaves for mulching your garden beds over winter, you may need to cover them with netting or sheeting to prevent the wind from blowing them out of place.

Synthetic Materials

A variety of plastic and synthetic woven mulches now exist to replicate some of the benefits of organic garden mulches. While comparable benefits include water conservation and weed inhibition, synthetic mulches do not add organic matter to the soil, improve soil structure over time, or feed soil organisms like worms and bugs. They must also be thrown away at some point in their lifespan. Additionally, using synthetic mulches may prevent the natural evolution of gardens and crop rotation if they lock the gardener into a crop-specific design.

Despite these drawbacks, synthetic mulches do have their place in some gardens. Many find that landscape fabric applied to a garden path and covered with bark mulch lessens the workload for several years running. Black plastic mulch used in strawberry or squash patches can also warm the soil early in the season, giving a jumpstart to heat-loving crops. (Be aware that a further layer of organic mulch may be needed as the weather warms to prevent plastic mulch from functioning too well and overheating the soil and your plants later in the season.)

Mulching Tips

1. Use materials you have on hand or those that are readily available from local farms or beaches.

2. Apply mulch thickly to the soil surface. Depending on the materials used, this is anywhere from 4-8 inches in depth. When in doubt, add more mulch.

3. Apply mulch any time of year. If applying in summer and the ground is dry, irrigate before applying. The mulch will conserve moisture in the soil and guard against evaporation. In early spring, hold off applying mulch until the soil warms and starters are established.

4. Pull fresh clippings, seaweed, and other moist mulches back from plant stems during application. As mulch dries, it will shrink and retract even further.

5. If you are concerned about your mulch containing weed seeds, apply thickly (at least 8 inches thick). Alternatively, expose your mulch to rain and weather before spreading, allowing any weed seeds to sprout and die before application.

A Final Word

Applying mulch to the garden is a simple practice that can lessen your workload and save you money over the long term. In Stout’s own words, “There is peace in the garden. Peace and results.”

~~
Shannon Cowan is an author, editor, and teacher who lives on six acres of land with her husband, daughters, and backyard chicken flock.

For further information log on website :
http://learn.eartheasy.com/2016/07/mulch-your-garden-to-beat-the-heat/

5 Easy Ways to Assess Your Soil for Gardening

Author
By EARTHEASY.COM




Before spring bursts upon us in a surge of tilling, sprouting, and planting, now is a great time for some quiet consideration of the upcoming growing season.  In addition to poring over seed catalogues and making sketches detailing relative locations of radishes and pole beans, new gardeners may overlook the importance of first understanding their soil.  You can start with some quick methods which cost nothing and require only a few basic tools.  As soon as the ground is thawed enough to sink in a trowel, you can perform these hands-on experiments.  Knowing more about your particular corner of earth only takes a few minutes, but gives you insights which set the stage for your most bountiful harvest.

What’s in your soil?

In fact, half of the ideal loam consists of elements we don’t consider to be soil at all: water (25%) and air (25%).  But the solid components determine how much air and water the soil can hold.  Organic matter — humus (decaying plants) and soil organisms — may only account for about 5% of your garden soil.  The balance is mineral particles of varying size, including sand (largest), silt (finer), and clay (finest).  The more sand, the more air the soil will hold, but water will drain away too quickly if sand content is too high.  Silt and clay hold water more effectively, but too much and there may be no room for the air which is essential for root respiration and nutrient exchange.

And so, when we asses soil for gardening, we’re looking for an ideal balance of elements.

When sand, silt, clay, and humus are each present in roughly equivalent quantities, you have a good loam to bring a smile to any gardener’s face.  Once you discover what’s in a spade-full of your own dirt, you can choose to add various amendments to make conditions more hospitable for your garden’s intended occupants.  Or to take another approach, you can choose your plantings based on your soil.  Perennials and fruit trees like sandier (though still moist) soil, while many vegetables such as melons, squash, and brassicas including broccoli, cabbage, and brussels sprouts will do well in denser, wetter soil.  Talk to other local gardeners who may have similar soil.

How to get a good soil sample

Choose a representative spot in a garden bed or planned planting site.  You may wish to test a few different areas, as results can vary even within a small area.  Remove any plants and debris from the surface.  Use a shovel to remove a chunk of soil about 6-8 inches deep and set it aside.  Now you are ready to scoop your testing material into a container.  Insert your trowel vertically along the edges of the hole to obtain a cross-section of topsoil.  This is the crucial layer for most garden plants, especially annuals.  Mix up the resulting strips of soil until you have a fairly uniform substance.

Use your senses
Rub some dirt between your fingers and take a close look.  Is it gritty, crumbly, sticky, fluffy, silky?  You will begin to understand the texture and composition of your garden just by looking and touching.  Next, bring a handful near your face and take a deep breath.  How does it smell?  If your soil is fertile with an abundance of healthy microorganisms, it will smell pleasant and “earthy”.  Any offensive odor indicates your soil is putrefying with anaerobic bacteria and needs aerating — just like tender roots, the “good” bacteria need oxygen to thrive.

Test 1: Soil Composition
Trowel four inches of soil into a quart-sized glass mason jar.  Fill the jar with water up to the neck, tightly screw on the lid, and shake vigorously.  Now set the jar aside for at least 24 hours.  When you return the next day, the sample will have settled into visible layers showing the proportions of your soil components.  Sand goes quickly to the bottom, with silt just above, then clay, then organic matter.  Bits of undecomposed plant matter will float on top.  If the water is still opaque with dissolved clay, try leaving the jar in a dark place (to prevent algae growth) for a few more days.  Measure each layer.
 soil_assessment02

A perfect loam would show around 45% sand, 25% silt, 25% clay, and 5% organic matter.  Notice that sand takes up more room because it will not pack as tightly, owing to large particle size.

What do I learn?  A glance at your sand layer tells you a lot.  If sand is much more than half the mineral content (over 60%), you may struggle to keep your garden adequately watered and nourished.  Add more organic matter such as compost or manure.  However if the sand is much less than half (under 40%), sensitive roots may suffocate or struggle to penetrate the density of your terrain.  Again, adding lots of organic matter is key — but take care to mix it evenly with existing soil rather than just scooping amendments into planting furrows or holes.  If the plant’s immediate soil density differs too much from the general conditions, the roots may fail to penetrate outside of that little pocket of nutrients, leading to an unstable plant.  Talk to your local Cooperative Extension office or experienced local gardeners to learn more about your soil type.

Test 2: Soil Compaction
Hold a wire landscaping flag (or other 2-foot length of straight metal wire) vertically over an untilled garden bed.  Plunge it slowly but firmly into the ground.  When the wire bends, buckles, or stops, mark it at ground level.  Pull it out and measure the portion which sank easily into the ground.

What do I learn? If your garden has a foot or more of penetrable soil, new roots will explore and expand with ease.  Overly dense, compacted soil may have a high clay content and will prevent roots from spreading optimally.  Other causes of compaction include walking or driving machinery over the area.  Tilling can help soften hard ground, but aerating amendments such as compost, sphagnum peat, or coconut coir offer a longer-term solution.

Test 3: Drainage
Dig a roughly cubic hole: 12 inches wide, long, and deep.  Fill this hole completely with water and allow it to empty completely.  Then fill with water a second time.  How much time elapses before the hole is again empty?  Check the hole every thirty minutes until draining is complete.
 soil_assessment03

What do I learn?  If the second emptying took less than two hours, your soil drains too quickly.  Thirsty plants will suffer without very frequent watering, which is particularly impractical if you live in a drought-affected region.  Look for crops that need less water; adding organic matter should help retain water longer.  If any water remained in your hole after six hours, your soil drains too slowly.  Again, adding organic material improves the situation by giving loft to the soil.  Switching to raised garden beds is a good option for those with chronically poor drainage.

Test 4: Living Organisms
Who lives in your garden?  One of a child’s greatest pleasures in the garden is the marvelous abundance of creatures found below the surface.  In various areas of your garden, turn over one spadeful of earth, then gently sift the material and count the visible inhabitants.  Note the number of earthworms, as well as the total insect population.
 soil_assessment04

What do I learn?  A healthy loam has 5 or more earthworms per shovel.  Any fewer, and your soil needs nourishing.  (One exception to this rule: in some parts of the Southwest, earthworms cannot survive in the hot ground, and will be absent from even fertile gardens.)  At least half a dozen other bugs, such as millipedes, beetles, and ants, indicate a thriving ecosystem where beneficial microorganisms can flourish.

Test 5: Tilth
A soil’s “tilth” is a summary of its agricultural prospects.  Tilth combines the properties of composition, moisture, aeration, and drainage to impart a sense of a piece of land’s readiness for planting success.  For this final test, we return to where we started: pick up a handful of earth.  Hold a mound in your palm and compress it between two cupped hands.  Does it hold its shape when released?  Now poke it gently with a finger.  Does it crack easily apart?

What do I learn?  If your soil will not easily cohere into a smooth lump, it is probably too dry, sandy, or barren of healthy bacteria.  If it holds together too persistently when poked, it is likely to be too wet, dense, or clay-heavy.



In Conclusion…

You can choose to go further with more technical testing, but these five tests give you a good “grounding” of your soil structure.  Short of trucking in massive amounts of soil, you may not be able to change your soil’s fundamental composition.  The French concept of terroir (loosely translated as “a sense of place”) celebrates the uniqueness of every regional soil and ecosystem, and recognizes that each brings its own blessings and challenges.  Work with what you’ve got.  Find out what plants love your garden and your dirt.  For those species which never seem to thrive, consider organizing a trade with other local gardeners who till a different terrain.  Every soil, however, can and should be enriched.

For an abundant source of organic material to enhance any soil, consider compost.  Faced with sandy, arid soil, using a drip-system and a soil moisture meter can help.  In heavy, sodden soil, various amendments such as Greensand or coconut coir can promote aeration and drainage.  To improve all soil types, try planting a cover crop, or even simply mulching with straw or fallen leaves during the off-season to provide abundant organic matter to be turned over into the soil in early spring.

Once familiar with these five ways of getting to know your soil, you may find it comes naturally to re-evaluate regularly.  Test at different times of year, and notice how your soil responds to certain crops, amendments, and gardening methods.  Much as a mother can tell at a glance if her child is fatigued or feverish, an experienced gardener develops a close relationship with his or her soil.  Through consultation, trial, and error, you become the expert on maximizing your garden’s potential.
A productive garden begins with an understanding of the basic properties of your soil.

Before spring bursts upon us in a surge of tilling, sprouting, and planting, now is a great time for some quiet consideration of the upcoming growing season.  In addition to poring over seed catalogues and making sketches detailing relative locations of radishes and pole beans, new gardeners may overlook the importance of first understanding their soil.  You can start with some quick methods which cost nothing and require only a few basic tools.  As soon as the ground is thawed enough to sink in a trowel, you can perform these hands-on experiments.  Knowing more about your particular corner of earth only takes a few minutes, but gives you insights which set the stage for your most bountiful harvest.

What’s in your soil?

In fact, half of the ideal loam consists of elements we don’t consider to be soil at all: water (25%) and air (25%).  But the solid components determine how much air and water the soil can hold.  Organic matter — humus (decaying plants) and soil organisms — may only account for about 5% of your garden soil.  The balance is mineral particles of varying size, including sand (largest), silt (finer), and clay (finest).  The more sand, the more air the soil will hold, but water will drain away too quickly if sand content is too high.  Silt and clay hold water more effectively, but too much and there may be no room for the air which is essential for root respiration and nutrient exchange.

And so, when we asses soil for gardening, we’re looking for an ideal balance of elements.

When sand, silt, clay, and humus are each present in roughly equivalent quantities, you have a good loam to bring a smile to any gardener’s face.  Once you discover what’s in a spade-full of your own dirt, you can choose to add various amendments to make conditions more hospitable for your garden’s intended occupants.  Or to take another approach, you can choose your plantings based on your soil.  Perennials and fruit trees like sandier (though still moist) soil, while many vegetables such as melons, squash, and brassicas including broccoli, cabbage, and brussels sprouts will do well in denser, wetter soil.  Talk to other local gardeners who may have similar soil.

How to get a good soil sample

Choose a representative spot in a garden bed or planned planting site.  You may wish to test a few different areas, as results can vary even within a small area.  Remove any plants and debris from the surface.  Use a shovel to remove a chunk of soil about 6-8 inches deep and set it aside.  Now you are ready to scoop your testing material into a container.  Insert your trowel vertically along the edges of the hole to obtain a cross-section of topsoil.  This is the crucial layer for most garden plants, especially annuals.  Mix up the resulting strips of soil until you have a fairly uniform substance.

Use your senses
Rub some dirt between your fingers and take a close look.  Is it gritty, crumbly, sticky, fluffy, silky?  You will begin to understand the texture and composition of your garden just by looking and touching.  Next, bring a handful near your face and take a deep breath.  How does it smell?  If your soil is fertile with an abundance of healthy microorganisms, it will smell pleasant and “earthy”.  Any offensive odor indicates your soil is putrefying with anaerobic bacteria and needs aerating — just like tender roots, the “good” bacteria need oxygen to thrive.

Test 1: Soil Composition

Trowel four inches of soil into a quart-sized glass mason jar.  Fill the jar with water up to the neck, tightly screw on the lid, and shake vigorously.  Now set the jar aside for at least 24 hours.  When you return the next day, the sample will have settled into visible layers showing the proportions of your soil components.  Sand goes quickly to the bottom, with silt just above, then clay, then organic matter.  Bits of undecomposed plant matter will float on top.  If the water is still opaque with dissolved clay, try leaving the jar in a dark place (to prevent algae growth) for a few more days.  Measure each layer.

A perfect loam would show around 45% sand, 25% silt, 25% clay, and 5% organic matter.  Notice that sand takes up more room because it will not pack as tightly, owing to large particle size.

What do I learn?  A glance at your sand layer tells you a lot.  If sand is much more than half the mineral content (over 60%), you may struggle to keep your garden adequately watered and nourished.  Add more organic matter such as compost or manure.  However if the sand is much less than half (under 40%), sensitive roots may suffocate or struggle to penetrate the density of your terrain.  Again, adding lots of organic matter is key — but take care to mix it evenly with existing soil rather than just scooping amendments into planting furrows or holes.  If the plant’s immediate soil density differs too much from the general conditions, the roots may fail to penetrate outside of that little pocket of nutrients, leading to an unstable plant.  Talk to your local Cooperative Extension office or experienced local gardeners to learn more about your soil type.

Test 2: Soil Compaction

Hold a wire landscaping flag (or other 2-foot length of straight metal wire) vertically over an untilled garden bed.  Plunge it slowly but firmly into the ground.  When the wire bends, buckles, or stops, mark it at ground level.  Pull it out and measure the portion which sank easily into the ground.

What do I learn? If your garden has a foot or more of penetrable soil, new roots will explore and expand with ease.  Overly dense, compacted soil may have a high clay content and will prevent roots from spreading optimally.  Other causes of compaction include walking or driving machinery over the area.  Tilling can help soften hard ground, but aerating amendments such as compost, sphagnum peat, or coconut coir offer a longer-term solution.

Test 3: Drainage

Dig a roughly cubic hole: 12 inches wide, long, and deep.  Fill this hole completely with water and allow it to empty completely.  Then fill with water a second time.  How much time elapses before the hole is again empty?  Check the hole every thirty minutes until draining is complete.

What do I learn?  If the second emptying took less than two hours, your soil drains too quickly.  Thirsty plants will suffer without very frequent watering, which is particularly impractical if you live in a drought-affected region.  Look for crops that need less water; adding organic matter should help retain water longer.  If any water remained in your hole after six hours, your soil drains too slowly.  Again, adding organic material improves the situation by giving loft to the soil.  Switching to raised garden beds is a good option for those with chronically poor drainage.

Test 4: Living Organisms

Who lives in your garden?  One of a child’s greatest pleasures in the garden is the marvelous abundance of creatures found below the surface.  In various areas of your garden, turn over one spadeful of earth, then gently sift the material and count the visible inhabitants.  Note the number of earthworms, as well as the total insect population.

What do I learn?  A healthy loam has 5 or more earthworms per shovel.  Any fewer, and your soil needs nourishing.  (One exception to this rule: in some parts of the Southwest, earthworms cannot survive in the hot ground, and will be absent from even fertile gardens.)  At least half a dozen other bugs, such as millipedes, beetles, and ants, indicate a thriving ecosystem where beneficial microorganisms can flourish.

Test 5: Tilth

A soil’s “tilth” is a summary of its agricultural prospects.  Tilth combines the properties of composition, moisture, aeration, and drainage to impart a sense of a piece of land’s readiness for planting success.  For this final test, we return to where we started: pick up a handful of earth.  Hold a mound in your palm and compress it between two cupped hands.  Does it hold its shape when released?  Now poke it gently with a finger.  Does it crack easily apart?

What do I learn?  If your soil will not easily cohere into a smooth lump, it is probably too dry, sandy, or barren of healthy bacteria.  If it holds together too persistently when poked, it is likely to be too wet, dense, or clay-heavy.

In Conclusion…

You can choose to go further with more technical testing, but these five tests give you a good “grounding” of your soil structure.  Short of trucking in massive amounts of soil, you may not be able to change your soil’s fundamental composition.  The French concept of terroir (loosely translated as “a sense of place”) celebrates the uniqueness of every regional soil and ecosystem, and recognizes that each brings its own blessings and challenges.  Work with what you’ve got.  Find out what plants love your garden and your dirt.  For those species which never seem to thrive, consider organizing a trade with other local gardeners who till a different terrain.  Every soil, however, can and should be enriched.

For an abundant source of organic material to enhance any soil, consider compost.  Faced with sandy, arid soil, using a drip-system and a soil moisture meter can help.  In heavy, sodden soil, various amendments such as Greensand or coconut coir can promote aeration and drainage.  To improve all soil types, try planting a cover crop, or even simply mulching with straw or fallen leaves during the off-season to provide abundant organic matter to be turned over into the soil in early spring.

Once familiar with these five ways of getting to know your soil, you may find it comes naturally to re-evaluate regularly.  Test at different times of year, and notice how your soil responds to certain crops, amendments, and gardening methods.  Much as a mother can tell at a glance if her child is fatigued or feverish, an experienced gardener develops a close relationship with his or her soil.  Through consultation, trial, and error, you become the expert on maximizing your garden’s potential.

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