This year I bought a nifty little soil test kit. It’s a home test kit that allows you to test the pH of your soil as well as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium levels.
Our test results showed that our soil has a pH around 7, has a surplus to sufficient levels of phosphorus and potassium and is depleted of nitrogen. Finding out that our soil has a high pH and lack of nitrogen was cause for concern; most plants prefer slightly acidic soil and an acid soil can also help aid in managing garden pests whereas nitrogen is the most important element for plant growth and development and without it certain plants won’t grow, certain plant growth will be stunted, and others won’t be affected.
There are several additives that can be mixed into your soil to adjust the pH and the fertility of your soil. After doing some research, we came to the conclusion that is it best to add natural items and not chemical fertilizers. Natural additives have a longer lasting affect on your soil whereas the affects of chemical fertilizers is short lived. Unfortunately natural fertilizers also take longer to have an affect on your soil. Because of this, it is best to adjust your soil in the fall, not in the spring. Opps!
As I quickly found out, modifying the composite of your garden soil is not an easy task, especially when your garden is approximately 2500 square feet. It is a process that takes time and can involve large quantities of additives.
Last week we mixed peat moss into our soil to help retain moisture. This week we added more because I discovered sphagnum peat moss is acidic, it has a pH around 4.5. I also discovered to lower soil pH by about 1 pH unit; it takes approximately 2.5 lbs. of peat moss per 10 square feet of garden: that would be about 625 lbs for our garden!! I think we’ll slowly add a little bit every year.
In addition to the peat moss we added cow manure (it is also acidic in nature and has some nitrogen), and Blood Meal. Blood Meal is an organic material and has high levels of nitrogen. It is basically dried blood and thankfully has no odour and looks like iron filings.
We mixed batches of peat moss, manure and blood meal, spreading it over the garden and then tilling it in. It was a process that required a bit, okay a lot of hard labour but will hopefully be worth it!
Keep in mind that when adding items to your garden too much can be a bad thing. Our garden is large so it’s hard to over do it. With smaller gardens be sure to do your research thoroughly and always follow the guidelines that come with the product you buy.
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