Gardener’s notebook: think about the soil in your garden

YORKTON – The next meeting of the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be held on Wednesday, May 15 at 7 p.m. at the Yorkton Public Library.

Our guest speaker was Nancy Bird, who spoke about natural dyes from plants.

Visit www.yorktonhort.ca for full details.

What is the best way to have a good garden? Start from scratch! In the spring we get so caught up in the excitement of planting that we forget the importance of planningand before seeds are planted in the ground, this is what we should do.

We need to consider the soil in our garden. The soil is alive. It needs air, water and supplies to be productive and meet our needs.

You’ll notice I call it “ground.” I’m sure we’ve all heard people call it “dirt,” which makes me want to say, “It’s dirt, not dirt.” The word “dirt” makes it seem unnecessary, unimportant, and not worth caring about. But since it is the stuff that grows our food and crops, it is certainly important and deserves the name “soil.”

Soil is alive in that it contains millions of living organisms in every handful. I saw a nice handout for kids on the floor, and it said, “There are more living things in a piece of healthy soil the size of your big toe than there are humans on Earth right now…over 7 billion of them!

In spring, it is therefore important to think about how we can help our soil give all it can to make it more productive. Our first task is to clear the garden of twigs and leaves that have been blown over since last fall. Weeds may also be growing, so let’s get rid of those too!

We now have our blank canvas for our garden. Some gardeners may want to use a soil test kit. Soil analysis kits tell us about the nutrients that the soil in our garden contains or does not contain. It will tell us if our soil is acidic (the PH level should be around 6.5), neutral or alkaline. Soil testing kits can usually be purchased at garden centers.

But some gardeners can bypass this step and just go back to the basics of improving the soil, like adding compost or manure, or both. Manure helps improve the texture of the soil and also increases its capacity to hold water. I’ve read that manure is not technically a “fertilizer”, although it does have some fertilizer properties: it contains nutrients because of what it is: organic matter. Likewise with the addition of compost, which is organic matter that has broken down to the point where it resembles very rich soil.

Peat moss can also be added to heavy soil, and it will help aerate the soil and retain moisture. However, you must be careful not to add too much so that the water remains in the soil rather than evaporating quickly.

Adding sand to the soil will also improve air circulation in the soil as well as drainage. But this “plus” is also a “minus”, because it will quickly dry out the soil. I read an article from the University of Saskatchewan (gardening.usask.ca) that said: “The danger of adding sand, especially in small amounts, is that large particles of sand mixed with tiny particles of The clay will result in a concrete-like mixture. » Organic matter works best to improve soil.

We must therefore remember that the soil is a complex part of our garden and its health determines the success of our plants. It’s always a good idea to replenish the soil. Like us, it needs to be nourished to function at its best!

Thanks to our friends at YTW for their great work! Visit the horticultural society at www.yorktonhort.ca and have a great week! And mark this date, June 7th for our plant sale!