This is a guest article on soil building by Phil Nauta from Smiling Gardener.

THERE ARE DOZENS OF SOIL BUILDING TECHNIQUES you can use to start an organic garden. I’ve tried most of them, and in my view, these three are the most important to take care of first:

1. Use Quality Compost

Using quality compost is the number one priority for most gardeners. Not only does it bring in a broad range of nutrients, but it also supplies organic matter and beneficial organisms, both of which are generally low in most soils.

The organic matter holds onto nutrients and water, gives food and habitat to many helpful organisms, increases air in the soil and decreases compaction. The beneficial organisms – microorganisms, insects and other tiny animals – drastically improve the soil and directly feed and protect plants. They’re often the missing ingredient in achieving a healthy garden.

By quality compost, I mean compost that looks like nice/dark/moist/crumbly soil, smells good and was made with a diversity of non-toxic materials.

When I’m starting a new garden, I bring in as much as 6 inches of compost and usually till or dig it in. I don’t till much after that, but it’s helpful that first time to get it down into the root zone. Here’s where you can learn more about how to use compost on my site, and here’s Bill’s post on how to compost faster. In future years, I don’t bring in as much compost because my soil is covered by mulch…

Phil from Smiling Gardener discusses soil building.

2. Use A Proper Mulch

As you know, mulch goes on top of the soil. It provides many of the same benefits as compost – holding water, decreasing evaporation, providing food and habitat for organisms, breaking down into organic matter, protecting the soil, and so on. It even provides fertility if you use the right kind. But the most common mulches are either not very helpful or even detrimental.

For example, stones/rocks protect the soil and keep it moist, but don’t break down into organic matter, and actually stop any other organic matter from being incorporated into the soil. Bark mulch and wood chips do many things right, but both can contribute to nitrogen deficiency in the soil. I’ve seen this many times. Bark from conifers contains a lot of toxins. These can work in some situations, but aren’t my favorite choice, especially for a vegetable garden.

My favorite mulches are straw and leaves. Straw does nearly everything right, although it doesn’t look that great and has to be brought in every year. Still, it’s my mulch of choice in a new garden until I can accumulate enough of the absolute best mulch: leaves.

Leaves contain many nutrients, look natural, and with intelligent garden design, will appear for you every autumn from your deciduous trees and plants. Leaves are nature’s fertilizer, and then you can supplement nutrients if you like…

3. Use The Right Fertilizer

There are thousands of organic fertilizers made specifically for organic gardening. Choosing the right one for you can get overwhelming, but fortunately, you don’t need all of them. In fact, before using any of them, you probably need compost and a good mulch. They’re the best all-round fertilizers available.

Then you can supplement with a natural, broad-spectrum fertilizer such as sea minerals or kelp. What I like about them is that they have just a little bit of everything, rather than only nitrogen – phosphorus – potassium (N-P-K).

Then there are more specific mineral fertilizers like dolomite lime and gypsum. I know they’re often recommended in organic gardening, but the truth is that they shouldn’t be used unless you’ve had a soil test done that indicates you actually need the minerals they contain. I don’t mean a home soil test kit – I’m referring to sending your sample to a quality lab that gives organic recommendations.

Otherwise, it’s very likely that you’re supplying the wrong nutrients. For example, dolomite lime supplies a lot of calcium and magnesium. The calcium is often a good thing, but most people already have too much magnesium. Adding more just causes compaction and pest problems.

So unless you’re getting into soil testing, it’s best to stick with the fertilizers that provide many different minerals in just tiny amounts. Quality compost and leaf mulch supply a lot of this, and others such as sea minerals and kelp can be used to kick things up a notch.

I’ve been gardening for a long time, and I really enjoy getting into some of the more advanced techniques such as compost tea brewing and soil mineral balancing based on a soil test, but I always have to remind myself that three basic techniques — compost, mulch and broad-spectrum fertilizing — are the most important steps to take care of first.

Phil Nauta is a SOUL Certified Organic Land Care Professional. He’s the author of the book ‘Building Soils Naturally’, to be released by Acres U.S.A. this summer. He has taught for Gaia College and been a director for The Society For Organic Urban Land Care. He was an organic landscaper and ran an organic fertilizer business before starting smilinggardener.com to teach practical organic gardening tips to home gardeners.

Related articles you might enjoy:

1. Growing Cover Crop
2. Mulching Raised Garden Beds
3. Making Soil – Chop and Drop
4. Five Gardening Ideas from Building Soils Naturally

*If you purchase using this link, I make a small amount of money that helps me continue to keep writing this blog.

This is a guest article by Jakob Barry from Networx.com.

FOR MOST GARDENERS, EXCITEMENT OVER THE GARDEN STARTS TO WANE AS SUMMER COMES TO AN END and the days grow shorter. Our focus tends to turn to indoor pursuits. True, there are plenty of gardeners who keep growing through the winter, especially those in warmer regions. But for those in cooler climates, September signals that it’s time to begin preparing for next year.

As part of the process, one of the things I hope to accomplish by October (unless things are still growing) is covering the vegetable beds because letting them sit idle has several drawbacks that can impact crops and cause additional work in the spring. Winter covers can be a very helpful and easy way to protect and improve your soil. Here are a few reasons why:

First of all, soil temperature plays a big part in a successful garden and the most important thing a cover does during the winter is keep the temperature constant through the snow and blistery weather.

Second, realize that the garden just worked hard for a good five to six months using up its nutrients. If the beds aren’t covered, weeds and other unwanted vegetation may grow. This will further deplete the soil’s nutrients and cause a big mess just in time for the spring.

Finally, even if homeowners plan to fertilize the soil, leaving beds uncovered increases the possibility of erosion from runoff or damage to the soil structure. Both can occur from heavy down pours, melting, or even home related events such as strong flows from improper rain gutter installation or broken drain pipes.

It’s for these reasons and more that I usually go with one of these two options to cover my vegetable beds for the winter months.

Cover crops

As I already mentioned, unwanted vegetation can be detrimental to the earth but cover crops actually benefit the soil during the off season and are very much worth planting.

Popular ones include winter rye, which increases the amount of organic matter in the soil and legumes, which make more nitrogen available for your spring crops.

In most cases these crops are simply considered cover and not true crops since nothing intends to be harvested. When spring arrives it will all be tilled into the bed and will release nutrients into the ground.

Mulching:

If cover crops aren’t an option, mulching is the next best thing. Mulch is a good protector of soil, helping to keep weeds down. Like cover crops, mulch also adds nutrients and organic matter as it decomposes. A few ways to make your own mulch covers include:

Summer crops. Instead of cleaning the bed entirely from this summer’s plants, chop up leaves and branches and leave them in place to decompose. Keeping some roots intact in the ground will help prevent erosion until the spring when they can be tilled into the ground. Corn is frequently left in the ground to decompose.

Fall yard clean up. Leaves and other organic debris can be put to good use as mulch in and around perennials, bushes, and especially in the garden beds. Just avoid debris sprayed with chemicals or which contains annoying weeds seeds. Leaves make great mulch cover, but can be highly acidic (depending on the type of tree) so when using leaves you may need to mix with other vegetation, or remove in the spring to make a leaf mold pile.

Saw dust. Local carpenters have lots of saw dust and wood shavings that you can use as mulch and many times they are willing to give them away. But be careful that the mulch isn’t from treated wood that can leach harmful chemicals into your soil and ultimately your food.

Straw and hay. These terms can be used interchangeably, but the best option is the straw that has already been threshed so it doesn’t spread weed seeds.

Black and white newspaper. It may not be pretty, but it works great and since today’s black and white inks are all soy based, there’s no worry of chemicals being absorbed by the ground or plants.

Do you use cover crop or mulch or something all together different to cover your soil in the winter time. Let us know by commenting below.

Jakob Barry writes for Networx.com. He covers various home improvement topics including landscaping and roof maintenance.

Related articles:

1. Vegetable Plant Spacing
2. Testing Garden Strategies
3. Mulching Raised Garden Beds

ALTHOUGH MANY VEGETABLE GROWERS ARE FAMILIAR WITH some of the benefits of mulching raised garden beds, there’s one benefit that’s not well known.

First, let’s look at what’s common knowledge. Backyard gardeners know that mulching can:

• Retain moisture and reduce the required amount of water
• Prevent weeds from growing by blocking sunlight
• Contribute organic matter to the soil as the mulch breaks down
• Reduce plant diseases by preventing soil from splashing on plants
• Keep soil cooler when it’s too hot
• Trap bad bugs in the soil and prevent them from getting at your plants

Still, there is one benefit NOT listed above that that will be new to even some experienced gardeners. Let me take a minute to explain.

The top layer of soil in a raised bed typically has some of the highest amounts of nutrients and organic matter. This is especially true if you top dress your raised beds with compost or organic fertilizer. But plants often can’t access this soil because it’s too dry. Mulch can make it possible for plants absorb nutrients from the top layer.

Without mulch, the top layer normally dries out and roots either don’t grow in this area or can’t take up nutrients because of the lack of moisture. Mulch lets plants grow right up to the top of the soil because the mulch keeps the top layer from drying out. The photo to the left shows tomato roots growing right under the surface of the mulch.

Great for your plants

This extra inch or two of growing room can be great for your plants. In my case, I’m always struggling to find enough low cost organic soil amendments. I never seem to have enough good top soil in my beds. (Can you ever have enough?) This is especially true for some of my beds that have natural granite bedrock sitting not far below the normal surface of the ground.

But mulch isn’t right for all situations. It can:

• Keep soil temperatures too cool
• Encourage slugs
• Change your soil to an undesirable pH
• Promote mold (especially wood chip mulch)

I use black and white newspaper covered with mulched oak leaves for my mulch for my tomato plants. This makes for a great weed barrier and also keeps the soil moist. I wait until after the ground has warmed before I put it down. Then I remove it at the end of the growing season because I don’t want my soil pH to become too acidic, which oak leaves will do if too many make their way into the soil.

In some areas, gardeners don’t use mulch because it promotes slugs. Fortunately, we don’t have very many slugs in southern New Hampshire, so I don’t have this problem. I’ve been mulching with oak leaves for a few years now and it hasn’t caused any problems. I’ll let you know if I run into any.

Options for mulch

Thankfully, you have a number of (sometimes free) options for mulch. Some are more appropriate for certain environments. Some shouldn’t be used in certain cases. Your options include:

• bark chips
• cocoa bean shells
• coffee grounds
• compost
• grass clippings
• leaves
• newspaper
• pine needles
• straw
• wood chips

Do you mulch your raised garden beds? Why or why not? Let us know by commenting below.

Related articles you might enjoy:

1. Making Soil – Chop and Drop
2. Comfrey Mulch for Strawberries
3. My Soil Improvement Plan