How to Make Garden Soil

A garden is a great way to grow beautiful decorative plants as well as fruits and vegetables you can serve at the dining room table. In general, the soil in your yard is probably adequate to grow a few garden items, but not always. This is particularly true if you live in an arid area with desert-like soil. In this case, you're going to want to make your own soil, which is easy to do!

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Soil
• Fertilizer
• Garden tools (trowel, shovel, fork)

1. Till the existing soil in the area where you want to plant your garden. One of the first important features of garden soil is proper aeration, which is best done by breaking up hard soil. Aerating the soil should be done to a depth of around 6 to 8 inches, which is roughly how deep the roots to your garden plants will grow.

2. Add either lime or sulfur to your soil depending on its current pH level. Lime will lower the pH, while sulfur will raise it. Most plants will grow in the 6.0 to 8.0 range, although some will want more acidic or loamy soils.

3. Make or buy compost and add it to the soil as well. Compost is one of the best fertilizers available, and it will continue to keep your soil fertile for several seasons.

4. Mix standard store bought fertilizers into the soil to further fortify it. Good fertilizers have high nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (in the form of potash) levels, three key nutrients for the best plant growth.

5. Plant cover vegetation like alfalfa or moss. These types of low-growing plants are great for helping increase nitrogen levels in the soil, as well as producing terrific natural compost when they decay.

6. Introduce earthworms into the soil. Earthworms are great for helping keep the soil fertile both by eating the bacteria, as well as helping keep the soil moist throughout the root level.

Tips & Warnings

• Evaluate your soil once you make it. The best and easiest ways to do this are either with a home soil testing kit, or by taking the soil to a garden center that offers testing services. Alternately (and free of charge), you can simply experiment with the soil, adding or changing the contents until you find the right proportions for your garden.
• Don't add too much fertilizer to the soil when you are fortifying it. Over-fertilizing your soil will lead to "fertilizer burn," a condition in which the fertilizer is absorbing more moisture than the plants in it are.

Resources

• Gardening help from the National Gardening Association