Soil: It's Not a Dirty Word

The How Do Gardener ^ | Jan. 06, 2014 | Rick Bickling

[orsonwb]

Soil covers only 10% of the earth’s surface, but within this small area, all of the world’s crops are produced. It provides the anchor that allows plants to grow upright and is the primary source of water and nutrients for plants. Scientists have identified over 70,000 varieties of soil in the United States alone...

[orsonwb]

Hard to think about planting anything when it's 8 degrees outside, but one can always dream of spring.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The last batch of seeds arrived this past weekend.

I’ll wait a few days...

[left that other site]

Soil Ping

[bgill]

Not so hard. The Farmers Almanac predicted a cold winter and they were right. The past couple weeks, I’ve been getting together all the seeds and plans and calendars and potting supplies and how-to info and, and, and...

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

A few important elements of soil.

Soil can be made, or enhanced, with the combined efforts of people, water maintenance and soil additives, microorganisms, plants, and underground fauna.

To start with, optimally the terrain is modified enough to prevent wind and water erosion, and to catch enough water and run off too much water. Underground it is important to figure out the depth of bedrock or clay that could prevent drainage, encouraging a buildup of salt in the soil over time. Likewise, surface rocks should be removed.

Next it needs to be determined if the ground and groundwater have toxic contamination, which could be any number of things including heavy metals, semi-metals like arsenic, industrial or man-made contaminants. Likewise, if the ground needs particular minerals, and if its pH is balanced.

Once the ground is prepared, especially with clay degrading chemicals like gypsum, sulfur, iron, etc., and the pH adjusted, and drainage is acceptable, then efforts should be made for moisture retention (such as adding Styrofoam peanuts) and the introduction of good microorganisms, along with organic matter for decomposition, such as mulch, manure, peat, etc. Along with earthworms, who will hopefully be fruitful and multiply.

By now the soil is almost ready, but the finishing touch are crops that fix nitrogen in the soil, then are plowed under to enhance the upper layers.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks orsonwb. All that snow seed I planted in the fall came up this weekend.

[greeneyes]

Here’s an interesting thread/article regarding soil, case anyone is interested. Thanks to left that other site for the heads up.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3108793/posts

[greeneyes]

LOL. Stop planting that snow seed in Missouri-please.

[rightly_dividing]

LOL!