5 Garden Soil Tips

This summer season I have spent so much of my time outside working in the vegetable garden, and we have truly benefited from all of our hard work. Last summer I was in such a hurry to plant my starters, I really didn’t focus too much on the condition of the soil.  We had ordered special topsoil from a local farm, however, it was very sandy and it didn’t have enough nutrients for my vegetables. Even though I ended up with a very nice garden, not all of my plants grew as well as I had hoped.

Last fall I ran across a Youtube video from Garden Answer: episode “Using leaves to make homemade mulch”.   I decided to follow their guidelines on how to make homemade mulch, and this year I’ve noticed a huge improvement in my soil, just by using the natural elements from our own property.

Below are 5 things you can do this fall to prepare your garden for next spring:

1. Leaf Mulch:  Once you have harvested all of your vegetables from the summer and your garden beds are clear, you can add a layer of homemade leaf mulch on top of the existing soil.  We use a Cub Cadet chipper shredder vacuum and it works great for us.
2. Blood Meal:  After you spread out your leaves onto your garden beds, sprinkle a layer of Epsoma Blood Meal on top of your leaf mulch, and let it rest until spring.  There is no need to til the blood meal in with the leaves, it will naturally break down and add nutrients to your soil throughout the winter months.
3. Ashes:  If you happen to use a wood-burning fireplace during the winter months, don’t discard your ashes, save them for your garden beds. When spring arrives, scatter the ashes over the top of the leaf mulch, turn, and til.
4. Compost:  Add a good 2″-3″ layer of organic compost of your choice to your beds, turn, and til the soil to incorporate thoroughly.
5. Fertilizer:  Just before you are ready to plant your vegetables add in an additional organic fertilizer.  We used  Epsoma Organic Fertilizer Garden Tone. Follow the instructions on the bag for the quantity to use.

I’m so impressed by how much my garden has improved this year just by following these 5 simple steps. I really hope these tips help you have a successful garden next growing season.

Happy gardening everyone!

All 4 One Home

**Please note:  The products I’ve listed above are items I have personally purchased and found much success with, this is not a paid sponsorship.