" First Timers"

As I was milling about today I realized that some people reading this blog may have never gardened or planted anything before..... I apologize for not giving you the basic information to get you headed in the right direction. So today i will inform you about........

SOIL!!!!!

No not dirt......SOIL!  You may thinking to yourself...what is the difference????  Well let me explain!


Dirt.....dirt is something that is on your clothes, shoes or a road. You do not want to plant anything in Dirt....Dirt is, for all intensive purposes,.....Dead....and if you plant in dirt your plants will be too!!

Soil ....it could be argued that soil is the foundation for all life....but that is a little too philosophical for me so lets just go with soil is ALIVE. ( ok I don't mean soil is alive like it will go have a cup of coffee, or mop the floor for ya but bare with me!)

Soil does, in it's own respect, breathe....there is a gas exchange that does go on within the soil. Soil houses many ( too many for me to count) organisms ...large such as worms, small such as ants and microscopic such as various bacterias.....good and bad. A good soil has all the essential nutrients for plant growth. ( Dirt has... NO NUTRIENTS)

Some of us are blessed to have very rich soils...however in this day and age with all the subdivisions and building that goes on most of us have lost our layer of top soil in our back yard and we are left with the sub-soil.....still soil but not as "good" as the layer that was taken away. So what are we aspiring gardeners to do???

First off I recommend getting a soil test done on your property. This is a rather simple, inexpensive process you can do with the help of your local Co-op or extension service. What you have to do is go around your property and collect some soil from several different spots....mix it all together and if you are using your Co-op you can just take it to them in a baggie but the extension services have little boxes to fill up. Once you turn it in they can email you the results that will give you more information than you probably ever wanted to know about your soil!

But, from this information you can determine the health of your soil and there will be recommendations of what needs to be added to your soil to improve it. Now keep in mind these soil testes are are used to determine the soil health usually for large farms growing specific crops.....so there may be some wiggle room as to what you really need to do to improve your soil. But DO NOT be afraid to ask the people who did your soil test for explanations. That is what they are there for!

Ok so have I bombarded you with enough information today? Well Soil is the most important thing for your flowerbeds or garden so I am sure we will discuss this again until then...... if you have any questions or comments let me know!