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Each person wants to use a garden or personal plot to the maximum: plant vegetables, sow greens, and create a flowering flower bed. However, the soil tends to deplete. That is why it is worth figuring out in advance how to improve the soil, enriching its composition to increase fertility.
Signs of bad soil
How to effectively improve the structure of the soil in your own garden, you need to understand thoroughly. Determining whether the substrate needs top dressing is simple – to do this, carefully inspect the soil composition. If it takes on a pale hue, it means that the soil lacks nutrients. Brown soil is direct evidence that the amount of humus in the substrate is too small. When you need to approach this issue more seriously, give a sample of the earth for laboratory analysis.
It is believed that when the earth becomes whitish in the garden, it means that it is saturated with too much carbonates. You can verify this as follows: put a few drops of concentrated hydrochloric acid on a lump of soil. If a reaction occurs and the liquid begins to sizzle, your doubts have been confirmed.
In the process of identifying signs of depleted soil composition, it is very important to pay attention to the type of soil. Take a small handful of earth in your hand, form a lump out of it and then see if it crumbles. If it has broken up, it means that the soil in your garden is sandy. Otherwise clayey.
However, do not forget about intermediate options: loamy and sandy loamy soils. It must be remembered that when the substrate is sandy, it absorbs moisture well and rather quickly, but also loses it instantly. All the same, it is simply necessary to improve the structure of the soil in this case.
Video “How to improve the quality of the soil on the site”
In this video, an expert will talk about what needs to be done to increase soil fertility.
We change the structure of the soil
Experienced gardeners know how to quickly improve soil fertility in their own garden plot. The first rule is a reasonable and well-thought-out agricultural technique, especially when it comes to cultivating plants in large areas. However, even in this case, over time, mineral salts, nutrients and trace elements gradually disappear from the soil. In this case, the salt composition of the substrate is significantly disturbed. This is an important signal that it is time to change the structure of the soil. This procedure is carried out in different ways, and the features of its implementation depend on the type of soil.
If you have heavy loamy soil in your garden, you need to dilute it with sand and fine expanded clay. When you have to cultivate greens and vegetables on poor sandy loam, it is recommended to include clay and humus in the soil. In both cases, do not forget about organic matter, which saturates any substrate with nutrients.
We sow green manure
For those who want to quickly and effectively enrich the soil composition, it is necessary to take into service plants that improve the soil. Green manure crops include annual crops that are planted in the garden, grown, and then mowed and embedded in the ground. Most often, it is recommended to sow such herbs after harvesting potatoes. In this case, by the onset of winter cold, you can grow green manure and process them in such a way as to saturate the substrate. The use of these nutritious herbs is remarkable primarily because with their help you replenish the soil with organic matter and at the same time loosen it well.
If the soil in your garden is really poor, you can sow perennial clover. In this case, you will let the soil rest for several seasons, and during this time the grass will saturate the substrate with nutrients. Three years later, the garden will need to be dug up (plowing is good for cultivated plants), and then feel free to plant any vegetables or other cultivated plants.
Mulch
How to improve clay or sandy soil, you need to find out in detail. It is not necessary to prefer one option if you can approach the solution of the problem in a complex way. For example, adding mulch is considered a good way to increase soil fertility. To do this, in the autumn, the cultivated and fertilized soil must be covered with a layer of natural mulch.
The best option is sawdust, straw, bark, grass or some kind of covering material. Moreover, you can resort to such a procedure not only at the end of the growing season, but also in its midst. The benefits of mulching are many:
- prevents evaporation of moisture from the soil;
- protects the rhizome of plants from overheating or freezing;
- allows you to achieve the optimal level of acidity in the substrate;
- enriches the earth;
- prevent the growth of weeds;
- protects vegetables and greens from overgrowing with weeds.
You can also increase the fertility of clay or sandy soil with the help of mulching.
Fertilizing
The structure of garden soil can be safely diversified through the application of fertilizers. Combine them or add alternately either organic or mineral compounds. Among the most popular organic nutrient mixtures, it is worth highlighting manure. It includes a large number of trace elements (cobalt, copper, boron, manganese), as well as microorganisms that help to decompose and assimilate organic matter much faster.
Even more nutritious is bird droppings. That is why it is recommended to use it in a diluted form, since the content of useful components in it is concentrated.
If you make bird droppings that are not diluted with water and other compounds, you can cause a burn on the root system of your greens.
Take care of the plants in your own area, apply high-quality fertilizers and be sure to alternate them. If you wish, use other methods of enriching the soil composition (sowing green manure and plowing, mulching), and you will extend the life of your garden.