Do you fancy owning and running a farm in the near future when resources are available? Or do you want to try growing your own food and have peace of mind of having an organic and safe food source? Or just want to enjoy creating beautiful ambiance? Building and creating a garden would be an ideal way to assess oneself.
Garden is a plot of land for growing flowers, vegetables, fruits, or herbs for pleasure or profit. In a way, gardening is different from farming in scale and reasons. A garden may be as small as a window box, few pots or as grand as a public park. Like farming, gardening is both a science and an art [1]. From beginner to advance gardeners, everyone plan and tend their garden with final result in mind.
For me, as a novice gardener, herb garden for cooking purpose in pots would be ideal to start. Most herbs are hardy type and use frequently in cooking thus that would provide a reminder to tend and avoid killing starter plants. Hopefully, from a culinary herb garden, it would develop into a vegetable garden, and then grow to a beautiful flower garden, a symbiosis.
Building a Garden Starts with a Solid Soil Foundation
In building a garden start with the foundation: having a great soil. Soil is an important factor to consider for gardeners. Some plants grow best in rich loamy soils, others thrive in loose sandy soils or in clays, and few plants like Tillandsia genus survive with none at all [2].
Soil by definition is the top layer of the earth and consists of two layers. The upper fertile topsoil where most shallow rooted plants grow. And the lower less fertile subsoil, supports deep-rooted plants and trees. There are different kind of soil, according to the particle present, it is categorize as either sandy, clay, or loam soils.
Kind of Soil
- Sandy soils, also called light soils, are made up of large rock particles and smaller rock particles, respectively. There are spaces in between particles, as a result, sandy is loose and does not hold water well and drain quickly. Nutrients tend to drain away with water before plants have a chance to absorb them.
- Loam or medium soils, are mixture of sand and clay, is the best soil for growing plants because it holds the right amount of water.
- Clay or heavy soils, are made up of small and flat particles that cling together. It is solid and does not allow water to penetrate easily. It drain slowly and sticky when wet, but becomes hard and cloddy when dried out [3].
Steps in Identifying Soil
There is a very simple soil test to determine what kind of soil in your potential garden. Repeat this test with several different soil samples from your lawn and garden.
1. Fill a 1 liter jar about one-third full with topsoil and add water until the jar is almost full.
2. Screw on the lid and shake the mixture vigorously, until all the clumps of soil have dissolved.
3. Now set the jar down and see as the larger particles begin to settle to the bottom.
4. In 1-2 minutes the sand portion of the soil will have settled to the bottom of the jar. Mark the level of sand on the side of the jar.
5. Leave the jar undisturbed for several hours. The finer silt particles will gradually settle onto the sand. Layers are slightly different colors, indicating various types of particles.
6. Leave the jar overnight. The next layer above the silt will be clay. Mark the thickness of that layer. On top of the clay will be a thin layer of organic matter. Some of this organic matter may still be floating in the water. In fact, the jar should be murky and full of floating organic sediments. If not, you probably need to add organic matter to improve the soil's fertility and structure [4].
Improving Garden Soil Structure
Any soil can be improved into a great garden soil based on the plants and purpose. Plants will be more productive having the right type, and healthy soil. Here are soil and compost ratio to improve certain kind of soil to a more suitable garden soil.
- Sandy - topsoil 1/2, compost 1/2
- Loam - topsoil 5/6, compost 1/6
- Clay - topsoil 2/3, compost 1/3
The kind of topsoil I am looking for a culinary garden would be a mix of loamy soil to hold water and good amount of humus, also referred as finished compost, which provides nutrients to the plants. In this case, the herbs are grown in pots, so the garden soil needs additional sand for drainage and some wetting agents like ground coconut husk/coconut coir, perlite and vermiculite. These additives create a different kind of gardening soil ideal for growing plants in pots, commonly referred as potting mix. Potting soils are made much courser to encourage better water flow and drainage while retaining soil moisture.
Making Potting Soil
- 1/3 part of garden soil
- 1/3 part of coconut coir/husk
- 1/9 part of perlite,vermiculite, or pumice (soil additives)
- 1/9 part of builder sand
- 1/9 part of coarsely crushed eggshells
The next time when cooking eggs don’t throw away the eggshells. Wash, dry and crushed them for garden use. Eggshell contains calcium carbonate, nitrogen and phosphoric acid, an organic source of potential soil nutrients And also, it is a safe slug and snail repellent, coarseness of the crushed eggshell is too rough for mollusk's soft bodies [5].
Honestly, there are countless recommendation for soil content ratio, garden mix ratio and potting mix ratio. Please feel free to share your own soil content ratio, general area you are from, the kind of garden and plants you tend.
The next gardening blog would be about on how to make compost and the different kinds of gardening soil additives.
For the next blog would be all about plants, featuring an easy to grow herb, my favorite, spearmint.
As always enjoy gardening!
References
1. Kinkead, E.B., Sehbai, D.S. & Tunney, C.J. (Eds.). (1972). Modern Century Illustrated Encyclopedia (Vols.9). Australia: McGraw-hill Far Eastern Publishers.
2. About Rainforest Flora. (n.d.). Aeranthos Tillandsia Species [Post]. Retrieve from http://www.rainforestflora.com/store/tillandsia/A10030/aeranthos/
3. Barrington, K. (n.d.). Difference Between Garden Soil and Top Soil [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://homeguides.sfgate.com/difference-between-garden-soil-top-soil-31708.html
4. Laliberte, K. (n.d.). Building Healthy Soil [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://www.gardeners.com/how-to/building-healthy-soil/5060.html
5. Chisholm, H. (Ed.). (1911). "Molluscoida". Encyclopædia Britannica. 18 (11th ed.). London: Cambridge University Press.
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