Soils: Key Learnings

Finished the module on SOILS.  Oh boy, there's TONS of information to potentially share.... no way I could do a productive blog on all of it so I'm going to focus on "key learnings".  These could be a few things I personally found interesting or something I think the average gardener doesn't typically know but would be cool / good to know.  Here we go......

1.  Opening statement in this chapter said..."The success of your garden depends on your SOIL, so don't treat it like DIRT!"   By the time I'd finished going through all the material I sure did come away with a better appreciation for soil, that's for sure.  Takeaway for me was if you want to really do justice to your garden take the time to learn as much as you can about soil.... no pun intended, but it really is the foundation to any successful garden.  If you're like me, you're drawn to the gardening books with all the pretty pictures of flowers, "encyclopedias" of this, that and the other, but one good reference book that discusses soils, amendments, fertilizing and composting would, IMHO, be a better investment of time and $$.

2.   I discovered a new word to add to my vocabulary:  Ped - an itty bitty clump of soil.  Try using that one next time you play Scrabble!

3.  Get a basic understanding of the Nitrogen Cycle and the Soil Food Web.  These concepts explain how soil processes nutrients and solid matter into usable food for plants.  There's a lot of cool things happening that we don't see..... knowing what's going on will help you garden more intelligently.  
Here's a wiki article on the Nitrogen Cycle:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_cycle
Here's one on the Soil Food Web:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_food_web

4.  Here's a piece of trivia:  1/4tsp of soil contains billions of organisms.... most of them friendly critters doing good things for your soil.  Take away for me on this one was the need to respect the natural balance in soil and tinker with it as little as possible.  Don't till to death, heap on fertilizers, compost and the like (yes, I'm guilty).... use amendments in an amount that optimizes your soil's nutrient potential while minimizing your disturbance of nature's natural processes.

4.  Fertilizers come in two forms:  natural (organic) and man-made (processed).  For the most part, natural ones provide nutrients more slowly over a longer period and man-made ones provide nutrients rapidly over a shorter amount of time.  Excess of either is NOT a good thing... you won't get bigger, healthier plants, you'll more likely just waste $$,  get plant problems (poor health/yields) and mess up that natural balance of good things in your soil.

5.  It takes a heap of fossil fuel to produce processed fertilizers.  Yikes!  I think I'll try to do things organically where possible and keep my processed fertilizing to a minimum.  

I'll save fertilizer calculations and application tips for a later blog.  I had Qs for the instructor and need to ponder that topic some more before I try to share my learnings.

If you have a soil-related Q.... let me know.  Happy to dig around and find you an answer!