1. Chapter one

2. Keys to Soil Preparation and Nutrition “ A garden is a friend you Can visit any time.

3. A Successful Garden  To create a successful garden we must consider several important points. Of course selecting an appropriate location based on the plants we intend to grow is a great place to start. For this chapter we will assume we have chosen a proper location, our next consideration is soil. The individual components that make up fertile soil begins with life itself. For the soil must be alive and healthy to allow plants to grow and produce abundant food.

4. Creating fertile soil  Creating fertile soil requires several ingredients. In your organic garden it is very important to have fertile soil to create the best possible growing conditions for healthy, tasty vegetables and great yields. Soil fertility is best when essential nutrients are available to your plants and when the humus levels are at 5% or more. ( Humus, hoo-mmess; a dark- brown organic component of soil that is derived from decomposed plants and animals remains and animal excrement. Humus improves the water- retaining properties of soil, adds nutrients and makes it more workable).

5. Humus  Humus is the stable decomposed remains of plant tissue that contains beneficial bacteria essential to live healthy soil. It is a product of composted vegetable matter. The cellulose in humus acts like a sponge and holds the moisture in the garden soil, available for growing plants, creating better drought tolerance. It has a water- holding capacity of up to five times its own weight.

6. Humus 2  Humus helps prevent water-soluble nutrients from being leached from the soil via watering or rainfall by binding itself to the nutrients, but at the same time making them available to plant roots. Humus helps bring out a loose, crumbly structure in heavy clay soils, while allowing free drainage during excessive rain; and provides cohesion in sandy soil.

7. Humus 3  So you see that humus is really the best way to overcome whatever problems you may have with your soil. Humus is also necessary to maintain healthy levels of essential soil organisms, fungi, essential bacteria and our wonderful friend of the soil, the earthworm.

8. Sandy Soils  Sandy soil has large, freely draining particles. Any nutrients present are leached by watering and/or rainfall.  You need to apply to the surface or dig in large amounts of humus to retain water and provide nutrients in sandy or cinder soils. All organic matter breaks down over time, so cinder and sandy soils will benefit from a large amount of compost, which will need replacing regularly. Tip: place a thick layer of mulch over the surface of the soil to reduce evaporation. A 20cm (4 inch) layer of mulch can reduce evaporation by up to 70%.

9. Cinder And Sandy Soil  Cinder and sandy soils can become a non- wetting soils, where any amount of irrigation will just run through or across the surface. If your soil is like this, you will need to add copious amounts of organic matter to correct this promble.

10. Clay soils  Clay soils are made up of tiny particles. It will hold water well, but the spaces between the soil particles are so small, there’s neither room for air, or space for water to escape. Clay soils tend to become boggy in wet weather, and dry out and crack in hot, dry weather. Clay soils often have high reserves of mineral elements, but roots are unable to mine them from the clay.

11. Gypsum And Cinder  Gypsum and cinder are well known clay breakers. Blend them into the soil for best effect. The clay will become friable and can be made more workable by incorporating cinder or sand and organic matter. You may also want to construct raised beds to increase drainage in clay based soils.

12. Test Your Soil  Most soils are somewhere between the two extreme soil conditions described previously. A very simple, but effective way to test your soil is to use a glass jar. Add a handful of your soil to a quart size mason jar, fill the remainder of the glass jar with water and shake vigorously. Let the mixture stand for a few hours or until all the suspended materials have settled in the jar. Now you will see quite distinct layers of soil. Of course sand and cinder will be lowest layer, then finer sands, silts, clays and lastly there will be the organic matter on top of everything.

13. The Best Garden  The best garden soil will contain approximate equal proportions of clay, cinder, sands and silt, with a large percentage of humus or organic matter.