Supreme Lawn Care

10/11/2021

16/01/2014

Successful Gardening 101

3. Feed the Soil, Not the Plants

Short version: Junk food, including organic junk food, has plenty of calories and may include added vitamins. But it's not great long-term nourishment, for many reasons we've learned and others we can so far only observe. Our bodies know the difference between eating a carrot and taking a capsule of vitamin A. Same deal with the soil.

Longer version: Plant health depends on healthy roots; healthy roots depend on healthy soil for air, water and nutrients delivered in forms plants can use. Soil rich in organic matter — compost! — is generally rich in nutrients and in the teeming life (fungi, bacteria, worms, etc.) that makes those nutrients available to the plants.
Ornamental plants in good soil seldom need added fertilizer, and crop plants that do need extra food need less of it when it's released slowly by friendly soil from things like rock powders, kelp and green manures.

16/01/2014

2. Plant Crops in Wide Beds


Crops are anything planted for harvesting: vegetables, cutting flowers, shrubs on hold to be transplanted... keeping these grouped as tightly as possible in beds that are not trod upon cuts down on weeding, conserves water, allows the compost to be concentrated where it will do the most good and improves soil structure year upon year as the layers of organic matter pile up. These beds are frequently raised or at least corralled neatly by boards or by long slabs of granite. Aesthetics aside, the primary virtue of this tidiness is easier path maintenance. From the soil and plant point of view it's the special treatment that matters.

16/01/2014

Successful Gardening 101

1. Use Compost
Spread it around plants to ward off disease; put a bit in your potting mix to add slow-release micronutrients; top-dress beds with it to improve soil structure no matter what kind of soil you have; use it to help restore life to soil that's exhausted from years of chemical abuse. Sprinkle it on the lawn spring and fall to encourage the shallow grass roots... It's almost impossible to use too much.