Lawn & Garden / improving your garden soil

It can be easy to get overwhelmed when you decide to grow your first garden. One thing I know for sure, for every gardener, there is a slightly different and equally legitimate way to grow a garden. Over time, with practice, you will become one of those unique growers of produce. There is not one "correct" way to be a successful gardener. It takes time, failure, imagination, and patience.

During the heat of summer, our gardens put on a lot of growth. Unfortunately, the weeds can begin to take off as well. Adding a summer mulch can help with your weeding, conserve water and cool the soil.

Soils are made up of basically four different ingredients. Sand is a large rounded particle with relatively jagged edges. A sandy soil drains very well but has very low water retention. Because of the size and shape of the sand, it does not hold on to water and nutrients. 

Raised beds are very versatile and easy to use. A raised bed allows you to easily control your soil mixture so that you can always have the proper soil for your plants. As you customize the soil mixtures in your raised beds, you can improve soil drainage and soil compaction, this being the most important advantage. This is very important, especially with the high alkaline, clay soil that we deal with here in our area.