Calendar
Soil building is an ongoing process. It doesn't stop once you achieve fertile soil — it just gets easier. The difference between creating and maintaining fertile soil is like the difference between losing weight and maintaining your target weight once you've achieved it. Periodic soil tests are like hopping on the scale to see if you're on the right track. If the results don't show what you'd hoped, review the appropriate chapters in this book and modify your approach. Once your soil tests give you the results you want, pat yourself on the back — and keep up the good work!
Keep Records
The easiest way to keep track of improvements is with a garden journal or notebook. You don't need anything fancy; some people find that an old loose-leaf notebook is more flexible than a preprinted volume with lots of pretty pictures. Write down your observations from the tests in chapter 1. A record of what you started with enables you to take credit for any improvements. Eventually, you'll be amazed to look back and see how far your soil has come.
Keep track of soil tests and what amendments or fertilizers you added in response. Make notes about how your garden responded. Yields from the vegetable garden are one of the best ways to measure the effects of soil building. Vegetables respond visibly and rapidly to soil improvements. (Recording yields for different crops also helps you plan how much to grow the following year.)
Make notes about temporary setbacks as well. Pests, diseases, and deficiency symptoms can point to problems missed by soil tests. Record unusual weather; you might find a connection between it and certain pests or diseases. Your observations are perhaps the best single tool for creating fertile soil. Since no two soils are exactly-alike, and since you can't test every square foot of a garden, you must look to your plants for information.
The following pages present reminders to help you apply the techniques described throughout this book. They're grouped by season so they make sense for gardeners from Mississippi to Manitoba, from Washington State to Washington, D.C Modify them as you like to suit your style, your schedule, and your situation.
Fall
- Collect samples for a soil test early enough to have time to add any recommended amendments before the soil freezes. State and private labs aren't as busy in the fall, so you'll get your results back more quickly. Fall is a good time to add calcium (lime) and phosphorus (hard rock phosphate) if your soil test indicates a deficiency of either.
- Fall is the best time to correct acidic soil in lawns and gardens by amending with lime, as indicated by your soil test. (Sulfur works faster, so wait until spring to treat alkaline soils.)
- Every four years, sprinkle granite dust on vegetable beds to supply slow-release micronutrients. Follow application rates on labels.
- As specific crops finish producing, start garden cleanup. Turn under crop residues, chopped leaves, and other sources of organic matter and sow hardy cover crops as you clean out each vegetable bed.
- Rake up the last leaves (or mow with mulching lawn mower) before winter snows.
Master Gardening Tip
Tip for the Season
If fall is always busy for you, put off some cleanup until spring
Spend your limited time on plants that are prone to disease or insects; clean these up first to minimize problems next year, [f spring is always busy, be sure to do as much soil preparation as possible in fall.
Dig new garden beds now to get a head start on improving soil. Remove sod and compost it. Plant a cover crop for turning under in spring. If you're too late to plant a cover crop, till in a 4- to 6-inch layer of chopped leaves or compost instead. Or leave sod in place and try the multiiayered method of sheet composting instead of tilling
Vcpdress lawns with screened compost to reduce natch buildup. Now is the best time to fertilize lawns (in warm c imates, fertilize only cool-season grasses, wait until spring to fertilize warm-season grasses).
Dig new garden beds now to get a head start on improving soil. Remove sod and compost it. Plant a cover crop for turning under in spring. If you're too late to plant a cover crop, till in a 4- to 6-inch layer of chopped leaves or compost instead. Or leave sod in place and try the multiiayered method of sheet composting instead of tilling
Vcpdress lawns with screened compost to reduce natch buildup. Now is the best time to fertilize lawns (in warm c imates, fertilize only cool-season grasses, wait until spring to fertilize warm-season grasses).
Once the growing season ends, or as specific crops finish producing, finish garden cleanup. Destroy any diseased material as well as material containing seeds of obnoxious weeds, or bury well away from the garden. Compost garden debris along with chopped leaves.
Rake leaves for the compost pile, to till into vegetable and new beds or to use as winter mulch (but don't mulch just yet). If you chop with a mower or in a shredder, leaves break down much more quickly. They also make a better mulch; they're less apt to mat down.
- A SOIL-CAR« CAliMDA«
Winter
- After the top inch of soil freezes (or at the end of the season in warm climates), spread a thick layer of mulch over bare soil and around perennial plants. (Compost or chopped leaves work well.) Replenish mulch around trees and shrubs, keeping it 6 inches away from trunks to discourage rodents from gnawing bark.
- Clean and oil hand tools before storing for the winter.
- Take an inventory of your garden tools. Toss out what's beyond salvaging and note what needs replacing. Use your inventory to plan the perfect storage shed, or to make improvements to your current system.
- In areas where it's too cold or inconvenient to make frequent trips to the compost pile in winter, start an indoor worm bin.
Tip for the Season
On warm days in late winter, or when the snow melts, inventory your garden. Make a list of chop s for spring. Where the ground doesn't freeze, warm winter days are great times for getting rid of weeds. Try not to step in beds while the soil's still wet.
After the ground freezes in very cold climates, add an addiiional thick layer of loose mulch over perennials to prevent frost heaving and protect from extreme temperatures. Branches from a discarded Christmas tree work well
Where rodents gnaw bark of trees and shrubs each winter, install a protective collar until spring. Cut a 1-foot-wide piece of '/Hnch-mesh hardware cloth long enough to wrap around trunk, overlapping a couple of inches. Bend cut ends to hold cylinder in place around trunk.
After the ground freezes in very cold climates, add an addiiional thick layer of loose mulch over perennials to prevent frost heaving and protect from extreme temperatures. Branches from a discarded Christmas tree work well
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