Content
For any gardener and gardener, the question of the quality of the soil in his beds and flower beds is the most pressing. Both those who began cultivating their land from scratch, and others who inherited cultivated land for many years, are equally concerned about how to arrange and maintain the fertility of their land. After all, without special care, the soil becomes overgrown very quickly. weeds and it’s difficult to grow anything on it. But, on the other hand, care can be so intense that after a few years, even on the best initially soil, yields will fall, and caring for it will become more and more difficult.
This article will discuss the main so-called difficult types of soils in Russia. The main options for arranging beds on various types of land will be described.
Good soil for plants - what is it?
Of course, each type of plant, including garden plants, may have slightly different ideas about ideal soil. Some people like it lighter, others more heavy. Some prefer a slightly alkaline reaction environment, while others prefer acidic peat bogs.But still, for most garden crops there are more or less general average requirements for land, without which they either will not grow at all, or the yields will be minimal.
So, what basic properties should the earth have so that plants can develop well and delight you with their productivity?
- Sufficient breathability. It often means loose soil, but this is not always the case. Sometimes good soil with many air capillaries may look relatively dense, but this is only at first glance.
- Moisture permeability and moisture capacity. The soil should ideally both conduct moisture well and retain a certain amount of it, so that moisture is retained inside the soil layer in any weather and at any temperature.
- Neutral reaction of the environment. Since the vast majority of lands in Russia are rather acidic, only a limited set of crops can grow on them. Most garden plants require a neutral or slightly alkaline environment. In any case, it is better to initially start from a neutral environment, and then, as individual crops with specific requirements are grown, adjust the reaction of the environment in the right direction.
- The saturation of the soil with nutrients is desirable in a form that is easily digestible for plants. This can be achieved using both mineral and organic fertilizers. But, given that future food products will be grown on this land, it is better to give preference to organic matter. Moreover, it acts softer and more long-lasting than mineral fertilizers.
The fastest solution to the problem
Unfortunately, not all gardeners can boast that they have beds in the garden or in the garden, soil that has all of the above properties. Otherwise, they would hardly be interested in the topic of this article. And there is also a whole army of newcomers who have just received land and, in general, do not know what to do with it, and whether anything cultural will grow on it. Therefore, creating suitable land for garden beds is a more than pressing problem for most gardeners.
For those who are desperate to grow anything satisfactory on their land, or those who have just acquired uncultivated land, the most convenient and fastest option seems to be to buy and bring one or more fertile soil machines to the site. Then carefully scatter this soil throughout the entire area or form ready-made beds from it, or even fill it with so-called raised beds, and grow whatever your heart desires. Apart from the high financial costs, there seems to be no downside to this option.
Indeed, the composition of fertile land, which is offered for sale by many specialized companies, is quite attractive: 50% peat, 30% black soil and 20% sand. But even if this composition is fully observed, the newly brought land will have enough resources for growth for a maximum of several years. Then you will still have to do something with it. Not to mention that if you simply scatter it around the site, it will quickly mix with the original soil, it will quickly be occupied by weeds and everything will return to normal.
But the main problem, perhaps, is that this so-called fertile soil can contain anything.The so-called black soil can be dug out from a neighboring lawn and turn out to be ordinary wetland, often turning black in color. Even if the black soil was brought from the southern regions, it could have been taken from completely depleted industrial fields, fertilized for many years with heavy doses of chemicals. Peat may turn out to be raised and not completely decomposed with an acidic reaction.
Therefore, this option can work quite well only if you find a reliable supplier and fill not the entire territory of the garden, but only high beds specially built for this purpose.
Raised beds
Nowadays high beds or boxes. For many owners of small plots of land from 6 to 20 acres, they really are the solution to many problems. This is a neat appearance of the garden, and low labor intensity in further care of them, and, most importantly, good and rapid growth of almost all cultivated plants in these structures. But making such beds is not easy work, although it pays off quite quickly - already in the current season.
Raised beds can come in different sizes. There are so-called boxes, their height usually does not exceed 10-20 cm, and they are made from wide boards or slate. However, it is not forbidden to use any available materials, as long as they keep the shape of the bed. More permanent structures are being erected made of bricks, stones, blocks or concrete. They are usually larger in height - they can reach 50 or even 70 cm. Coarse organic material - rotten boards, logs, stumps - is placed at the very bottom of such beds.A little higher, “softer” material is placed - branches, wood chips, bark, all of this is flavored with a thick layer of manure, maybe even half-decomposed, and watered abundantly with water. Then any organic material, such as hay, straw, sawdust, mown grass, is laid in layers and covered with humus. It is advisable to sprinkle or shed each 5 cm layer with any complex of beneficial microorganisms. Nowadays you can find a lot of them on sale. Baikal, Shining, Emochki and so on. The topmost layer in the bed, about 7-8 cm thick at least, consists of compost or soil mixed with humus. For boxes that are small in height, there may be about two or three layers, for tall ones – more than a dozen.
There is no need to mix them; microorganisms will do everything for you; they will settle in such a bed and will constantly maintain the most favorable conditions for plant growth. All you need to do is regularly add a mixture of soil and compost or even pure compost on top.
Options for arranging beds on what is available
For most gardeners, the option of purchasing land is impossible, due to the high cost of the material or due to the large areas of the garden and vegetable garden. What can be advised in such cases?
There really are no bad lands. On any of them you can grow quite good yields of even the most capricious crops. To do this, you just need to take into account the characteristics of the lands that you got and turn their disadvantages into advantages. And, of course, use the knowledge suggested by nature itself.
First of all, you need to understand the difference between humus and compost.
Humus is completely decomposed manure.Accordingly, if you don’t have a cow or at least chickens, you will have to buy it.
Compost is a collection of all kinds of organic residues, primarily plant matter, flavored with waste from your table. It completely turns into humus only after a year or two. With the use of compost maturation accelerators, this process can be accelerated several times.
sandy lands
One of the best for growing any plants, because they have the following advantages:
- Accumulate heat;
- Breathable;
- Create a favorable environment for root development;
- They retain moisture well with a large layer thickness.
The main disadvantage of sandy lands is the poverty of nutrients and their easy leaching from it.
Accordingly, the main technique for improving sandy soils is the regular application of fertilizers, preferably organic ones. Moreover, you can use both humus and compost. But compost is preferable for use on sandy soils, since it represents plant residues that have not yet completely decomposed. This means that when organic matter is washed out of the sand, it will constantly be supplied in the required quantities from the compost that continues to decompose.
Another technique for improving sandy soils is to add some clay to them to improve the adhesion of soil particles.
wetlands
This is a fairly common type of land, consisting of heavy loams or clays combined with a high groundwater level.
This is a difficult type of land, and gardeners prefer to make high ridges with bulk soil on them, assuming that nothing more can be done with them.In principle, this is one of the correct approaches, especially if you have in mind trees and shrubs that need a large layer of breathable soil. For ordinary garden plants, there are other methods.
It will be useful to install drainage ditches, which will lower the groundwater level by a few centimeters and the ground will dry out slightly.
It is advisable to prepare such lands for planting in the fall, then during the winter they will have time to ripen and all harmful emissions will evaporate. They need to be dug very shallowly, a maximum of 10 cm. Be sure to spread ash over the surface of the soil after digging, since these lands are usually highly acidified. Adding plenty of organic matter will also help the soil mature more quickly in the spring. But mineral fertilizers can only do harm in this situation.
In spring, the earth is no longer dug up, but simply loosened along with plant residues from the sown green manure. This land is already quite suitable for garden beds. Although good harvests can begin to be harvested only after a couple of years after the constant application of organic materials, ash and the cultivation of green manure in the vacant beds.
Land on permafrost
On these lands only a rather meager assortment of vegetables grows, primarily due to lack of heat. Therefore, the most common method in these conditions is soil insulation. To do this, a trench with a depth of at least 50-70 cm is dug at the site of the future bed. Any heat-insulating materials are placed at the bottom of the trench: from logs and boards to empty, closed plastic bottles. The top of the trench is filled with a mixture of earth, humus and compost.
So, in order to significantly improve the soil for garden beds on your site, you need to:
- Regularly grow green manure on your plot to obtain a large volume of organic matter for compost and beds.
- Form compost heaps annually to regularly replenish raised and regular beds.
- Constantly mulch the soil in the beds with a layer of cut grass or straw.
Conclusion
If you follow all the above recommendations, the soil for your beds will soon satisfy all the most sophisticated requirements of the most capricious crops, wherever you are.
