Content
- Improving the soil in the vegetable patch - the basis of a rich harvest
- Methods to improve the substrate
- Tips
Good soil is loose and nutrient-rich
Improving the soil in the vegetable patch - the basis of a rich harvest
The basis of every vegetable bed has already been created by nature: the earth in which your own delicious vegetables will thrive in the future. Regardless of whether your garden is sandy or loamy soil, you should pay the utmost attention to the top one-third of an inch. This is the humus or topsoil layer, the nutrient reservoir for your vegetables.
Methods to improve the substrate
For vegetable cultivation, the soil should have the following characteristics:
Compost is the best way to improve the soil. The organic substance binds coarse grains of sand and loosens the sticky clay particles of heavy soils.
These can be additionally loosened by sand. About two buckets per square meter you should work well in the plant bed. Exposed stone meal also counteracts soil compaction.
For sandy soils use clay flour. It improves the soil structure and increases the nutrient capacity. As the clay materials swell when wet, the water is better kept in the soil.
Tips
If you need more compost than you can produce yourself, you will receive this valuable material at many recycling depots, waste disposal sites or at the composting plant. Largely free of peat and produced locally, this "waste product" is ideal for improving the soil in the vegetable patch.