Healthy soil is crucial for our plants and our environment
Where's the soil? It's alive under there: The raised bed is covered with straw mulch, and the ground soil is allowed to be "littered" with straw and leaves. The stepping stones keep the gardener on the path, avoiding compaction of planting areas. Kathy Morrison
Any gardener who spends time poring over catalogs, debating plant varieties and choosing seeds, yet ignores the importance of the garden’s soil, is limiting the plants’ eventual success.
Soil isn’t just dirt. It’s alive with organic matter and multitudes of organisms, in addition to being about 45 percent minerals, 25 percent water and 25 percent air. Healthy soil gives plants their best life, and every gardener should be well-acquainted with their microclimate’s soil.
During a time of year when gardening activity calms down, California chooses to celebrate Healthy Soils Week, via the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources division, which includes the UCCE Master Gardener Program. The celebration runs through Friday, but the resources are available year-round.
New this year are a couple of excellent 45-minute talks that were presented live on Facebook and now are available on YouTube:
– “Healthy Soil: In nature, sometimes less is more,” by Mike Corby, a UCCE master gardener in Contra Costa County. He discusses the components of soil and why each is crucial. He also explains why it’s important not to disturb the soil environment too much, by tillage, compaction or – here’s a surprise – pulling out the roots of spent plants (such as tomatoes.) Better to cut them off at ground level and let the roots compost naturally in the soil environment, he says.
– “Harnessing the Magic of the Soil Food Web: Turning Dirt into Gold,” presented by Kit Veerkamp, a landscape architect and UCCE master gardener in El Dorado County. She notes how a healthy soil food web controls disease and keeps pathogens in check. She discusses composting and has some interesting things to say about the harm that weed cloth can cause.
I also recommend "Tips to Keep Your Garden Soil Healthy,” a talk from 2020 presented by Dustin Blakey, the Inyo/Mono counties' farm adviser and master gardener program coordinator. He notes that a huge percentage of gardeners load up their soils with excess amendments and nutrients, trying to find the perfect "recipe" for, say, their tomatoes or their cucumbers. "Focus on improving garden soil, and don't fuss about a single crop," he advises.
More soil resources:
This page from UCANR, Healthy Soils - Basics, has lots of great information, including a quick quiz to test how much you know about soils. Links there provide hours of reading material on soil, but here’s a list from that page with a quick summary of what healthy soil is and does:
A healthy soil will:
Clicking on the For Homes & Gardens tab on that page brings up more specific and very useful information for the home gardeners, covering topics such as common home soil problems, practices to improve home soil; soil pH and how to test it, soil texture, and amendments.
A week hardly seems enough time each year to cover the topic of healthy soils. But it’s worth exploring during the dark days of winter – your plants will appreciate it this spring.
Some of our winter garden topics you might have missed:
December rose care: Start pruning now
Garden checklist for week of Dec. 4
How cold is too cold for my citrus tree?
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Garden Checklist for week of April 21
This week there’s plenty to keep gardeners busy. With no rain in the immediate forecast, remember to irrigate any new transplants.
* Weed, weed, weed! Get them before they flower and go to seed.
* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.
* Smell orange blossoms? Feed citrus trees with a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants.
* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.
* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.
* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden is really hungry. Feed shrubs and trees with a slow-release fertilizer. Or mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost.
* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.
* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.
* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.
* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.
* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, radishes and squash.
* Plant onion sets.
* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias.
* Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.
* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom.
* Mid to late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.
* Transplant lettuce seedlings. Choose varieties that mature quickly such as loose leaf.
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