gardening articles

Posted on | October 28, 2009 | No Comments

gardening articles

Perfect soil

What is the function of soil in our yards and gardens? Simply put, soil provides plants with mineral nutrients, water and anchorage. The basic types of soil are clay, sand, and silt. The percentage of each determines whether you have sandy clay loam, silt, loam, etc.  There are so many variables that affect soil that your yard may have a different soil type than the one across the street.

Some soil properties that are influenced by the texture of soil include aeration, drainage, water holding capacity and temperature. For example, sandy soil has excellent aeration, warms quickly in spring and has a low water-holding capacity. The exact opposite is true for clay. It has poor aeration, warms slowly, and has high water-holding capacity.

Here are the four major components of soil:

• The solid portion, or rocks and minerals
• Decaying organic matter, microorganisms, living or dead plants and other organic matter
• Liquid
• Soil air

Amounts of each of these components determine whether or not plants will grow and thrive in the soil. Ideal or perfect soil consists of 25% air, 25% water, 40% mineral matter and 10% organic matter. As you already know, this never happens!

However, what we do to improve our soil will affect our plants.

You can re-mineralize your soil by adding Minerals Plus or Texas Greensand. You can increase organic matter by adding a good organic compost. This also increases earthworm activity and beneficial bacterial growth.  Spray-N-Grow increases microbial activity that helps keep air and water moving in the soil. To find out more about your soil, use the Sunleaves Three Way Meter.  It allows you to test your soil for pH, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and will give you immediate results.

Naturally, some soil needs more work than others, but with a little work and some good organic garden products, you can pretend that your soil is perfect! All of the gardening products listed in this article can be purchased from Spray-N-Grow.  

About the Author:

I am a gardener who enjoys growing vegetables, herbs and flowers. I believe in using organic methods and products when gardening.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Improving Garden Soil

Motor Oil good for Vegetable Garden?

I got my first copy of Gardening 101 magazine in the mail today. They had an article about using used motor oil (10w30) mixed with water on your vegetable garden to help with new growth. The recipe called for 1 part Oil to 4 parts water. Anyone tried this?

NO, water and oil don’t mix, plus you’ll be poluting the ground. In most areas that’s even illegal! You are kidding, right?

Gardening Articles and Tips

Bonsai Tree $1.99 Bonsai TreeThe Art Of Trimming Sculpting And PruningBonsai Trees Is Becoming One Of The Fastest Growing Hobbies In America For People With A "Green Thumb". Don't Be Left Out Of The Bonsai Sculpting Craze And Learn How To Make Many Beautiful Bonsai Trees And Have Fun Also!" ...

Grower Talks on Perennials - A handy desktop reference featuring selected articles from Grower Talks magazine $19.62 This collection of more than 60 articles from GrowerTalks magazine is written for professional growers by the industry's leading floriculture experts, academic researchers, and professional growers. Articles highlight proven methods and tips on crop control, growth regulation of perennial crops, pest control, and marketing perennial crops. The controversial issue of forcing perennial flowers out o...

Picture-perfect landscaping: Tropical Images' custom-designed software gives clients a virtual introduction to the yard of their dreams. (Before & After).: An article from: Hawaii Business $5.95 This digital document is an article from Hawaii Business, published by Hawaii Business Publishing Co. on October 1, 2002. The length of the article is 561 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Citation DetailsT...

Keywords $13.43 Keywords focuses on the sociology of language, demonstrating how the key words we use to understand our society take on new mean

Keywords in Policing (Paperback) $44.55 Like any large organisation the police service has developed its own o?=languageo?= that may be confusing to an aspiring or new police officers and other law enforcement practitioners such as Community Support Officers, Special Constables, Crime Scene ...

2500 Keywords to Get You Hired $10.46 Endorsed by the Professional Association of Resume WritersNow that 70 percent of job searches are conducted onl

Comments