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Adding Needed
Nutrients and Amendments
On this page find how to properly add fertilizers and soil amendments to your garden’s soil prior to planting, including:
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- Where to begin?
- The Basics of correcting nutrient levels and texture in vegetable garden soils.
- Natural and organic fertilizers and amendment products for use in organic home vegetable gardens.
- How to change the acid-alkaline balance, or pH, of vegetable garden soils with natural organic additives.
- A step-by-step demonstration of how to mix fertilizers and soil amendments into your garden’s soil.
Fertilizing and Correcting Garden Soils
After testing your garden soil for proper drainage and determining its fertility the next step is understanding how to add fertilizers and amendments to correct any deficiencies [see Percolation Test and Testing Soil].
The right fertilizers and amendments help you grow vegetables successfully in your home vegetable garden.
Most soil additives improve soil texture, add air, help the soil retain moisture, and improve too-slow or too-fast drainage [see Amending Soil].
For soils that hold important nutrients in unusable form, acidic or alkaline amendments such as organic and natural garden lime or sulphur will correct the imbalance, free the nutrients for your plants to use, and improve how your vegetables grow.
Fertilizers also add the nutrients that vegetables need to grow. Some specialty fertilizers may be necessary if your soils is deficient in one or more key nutrient or micronutrient.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Organic fertilizers added to home vegetable gardens are usually manure-based, steam-sterilized and composted products. They are completely natural and organic, derived from either animal or vegetative sources.
Garden sulfur and lime are also completely natural; most are mined from mineral deposits, but some are extracted from crude oil to remove them from finished petroleum products during the refining process. Read packaging labels carefully to determine the source of these amendment products.
Gather your leaf and garden rakes, a shovel or a spading fork, a tarp, a tiller, a wheelbarrow or garden cart, amendments, and fertilizer, and follow these easy steps:
Incorporating Soil Nutrients and Amendments
Begin by clearing all weeds and plants you plan to remove. Kill weeds organically by covering the bed with clear plastic for about 2 weeks before you intend to work the soil.
Dig a trench 9–12 in. (23–30 cm) deep and one shovel width wide along an edge of the bed, placing the removed soil on a tarp. Loosen the next 9–12 in. (23–30 cm) of soil within the trench. Remove all rocks and debris.
Widen the trench a second shovel width, placing the top 9–12 in. (23–30 cm) of its soil into the first trench. Progress across the area until all the soil has been dug. Fill the last trench with soil from the first. Use a tiller to thoroughly mix the topsoil.
Cover the worked area with a 4-in. (10-cm) layer of organic soil amendment, as needed. Add organic fertilizer, as needed, following package instructions.
Turn the soil amendments into the top 9–12 in. (23–30 cm) of soil using a shovel or fork.
Rake the top of the bed smooth. It will be high and fluffy with amendments and air. Water the bed with a sprinkler and allow it to settle for 3–5 days. When the soil firms, your plot is ready to plant with vegetables.