Knowing your soil is the first step on your soil health journey. When you know where it’s at, you can treat it just right. No more guess fertilising at the hardware store, no more pests and diseases from overfeeding, no more disappointing crops from underfeeding – steadiness all the way home.
But first you need is a general idea of how healthy your soil is. That way you know how much compost to use, whether or not you need to do something about the drainage or compaction, and if you need to get a lab test. Useful stuff.
You are perfectly equipped to suss it yourself – your eyes and nose and hand will tell you all you need to know. It’s no trickier than deciding whether the pot of tea is brewed enough, the undercoat is properly dry or the milk’s gone off.
Dig in, and have a look. It’s all explained in the article below where I run you through how to test your soil, and then show you how to assess the results. You wont end up with a definitive answer because there isn’t one – soil health is such a broad spectrum!
What you’re gonna do with your results, is compare them to a list of healthy soil attributes to show you the aspects of your soil that are healthy, and the aspects that aren’t. Tally those up and see on balance “oh there’s only one or two aspects of good health missing – my soil’s not too bad!”, or “wow my soil is amazing!” (rare as hens teeth), or “goodness we have work to do!” This is the most common result, but also the most rewarding. Improving soil doesn’t take hard work nor is it expensive – it will most likely save you money when you stop throwing loads of random so called “soil food” at your soil, and use all my simple tools instead.
Hi Kath,
I live in an urban area with an wild unattended garden; mainly some beds on the side of concrete steps. We had our house stripped and painted a few years ago. Do I need to get the soil tested for lead? I have this nagging thought about paint flakes from a very old house and basically a history I don’t know.
Thanks
Lara
Hey Lara, you can guarantee pretty much that the area around your house is a no go zone for planting food – save yourself the testing and plant away from it. The impact of the lead will be localised to around the house – so stick to natives and companions there.
The joy of a wild garden is that they are generally humming with soil biology which turns out to be the only way to mitigate toxic soils.
Enjoy
K
Hi Kath,how do you easily sort compacted soil,please. I’ve lost a couple of asparagus plants so dug down to find everything rotted away and it was like trying to dig through concrete.,cheers.
All soil can be transformed Trish! You’ll learn how following my healthy soil project, otherwise the answer is too big for this space 🙂 Do your DIY test – its your very best (and essential) beginning.
Hi Kath
Thank you for an amazing Garden Coacih session on Saturday. I scribbled down so much stuff!! One thing you pointed out was to put the wheelbarrow full of vermicast into the vegie garden not the planned orchard area. I’ve done this today and started with the next area for this years garlic, Feeling very organised.
Can I ask, do you leave weed roots in the soil as well as green crops etc?
thanks Catherine
Awesome Catherine! As for weed roots – there’s weed roots and there’s weed roots if you know what I mean! Feel your way with it and try things out by observing how the weeds respond. Dandelion, plantain, most grass not a problem. I don’t bother digging dock out – its doing an important job with its mighty tap root. Even though it’ll resprout I just keep cutting the tops off which is easy as pie. Some people can leave buttercup because its not so dominant in their particular soils, for others however it really jams up the works. Enjoy!
This is brilliant: so grateful for all your amazing advice,. Look forward to following along the soil health journey!
Awesome Rachel!
I want start a garden of pepper ,tomatoes and corn ,so what kind of soil would be good for this job..or how to improve my soil.
Here’s a helpful article Michael – https://www.ediblebackyard.co.nz/my-3-fav-ways-to-start-a-vegie-patch/.
Check out all the articles in the Soil health tab as well.
cheers, K
Wonderful info on the soil health.. I have noticed as my soil has improved over the last 5 years as I employed no dig, more compost and home made Fert with cow poo, worm tea and castings etc we have a huge decrease in pest pressure and improvement in produce quality. Many thanks for sharing your knowledge so freely Kath.
Coffee on its way!
Thanks Tricia!