Soil is the Most Important Thing You Grow in the Garden
NTFB’s garden specialist shares some tips on cultivating rich soil to support your plants.
In the North Texas Food Bank’s Jan’s Garden, we are big fans of organic garden practices and no-till gardening. NTFB Garden Specialist Karen Gilboux, who is a Master Composter and Gardener, cannot stress the following enough: Good, healthy soil is the absolute key to a successful garden.
As Jesse Frost (author of The Living Soil Handbook) says, “Getting what you need from the soil comes down to first asking the soil what it needs…. “The rules” for good soil are:
- Disturb the soil as little as possible
- Keep the soil covered as much as possible
- Keep the soil planted as much as possible
Whether planting in the ground, a raised bed, a pot, or a container – buy or create the best soil possible. North Texas soil contains lots of clay. This means you need to alter or amend the soil to provide good drainage and aeration. You might need to do this by adding organic matter, compost, sand, gypsum and even expanded shale to improve it. Organic matter also improves sandy soil. Good soil is living, healthy soil. Living soil is defined as soil filled with microbial diversity and living plant roots exchanging nutrients.
Paraphrasing Jesse Frost, plants derive their protection and nutrition in collaborative ways. Photosynthesis makes those choices possible. Plants figured out that they could take sunlight, turn it into energy, and trade that energy for protection and nutrients. Photosynthesis feeds the soil. Plant roots largely lack the ability to harvest minerals and nutrients on their own. Plants do have the amazing ability to absorb some types of bacteria into their root tips and extract nutrients from them. They can also utilize some amino acids and other forms of organic nitrogen for this extraction. However, unlike animals, plants can’t really “eat” to gain nutrients. Luckily, soil microbes such as bacteria, fungi and archeacia, are all equipped with special enzymes that extract nutrients and minerals from soil particles or organic matter. When those microbes die, or are consumed by predators such as amoebas, nematodes, earthworms or the like, the nutrients that they gathered are left behind in a plant-available form, or a form plants can absorb through their roots.
Thus, the importance of building healthy soil that encourages all the above organic processes cannot be understated. For more information about amending your gardening soil, you can check out NTFB’s short gardening educational video and more in-depth garden workshop video below
This video offers tips on amending your soil:
For additional tips, visit one of these resources:
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This material was funded by the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – SNAP. This institution is an equal opportunity provider.