Organic Gardener

Soil and Soil Care

For organic gardeners soil is the most important aspect of the garden. Building and maintaining a fertile healthy soil must be the top priority.

Soils are formed from the degradation of parent rock formations or volcanic deposits, silts from old rivers or wind blown deposits. The type of soil and how it is formed determines its depth, nutrient status acidity and alkalinity.

Soil Type: The proportion of different particles of sand, silt and clay determine a soils basic type.

• Clay soils: Tend to be dense, sticky and hard to work with, the smaller clay particles cling together giving it its texture.
• Sandy Soils: Will dry out quickly due to the high concentration of larger sand particles. Sandy soils also tend to have lower concentrations of organic matter.
• Silt Soils: Constructed of fine sand and clay particles, may also contain organic matter.
• Peat soils: Partially decomposed, preserved plant material formed in bogs under extremely acidic conditions.

Managing soil organically

How you manage the soil in your garden depends on factors such as the general type of soil, how it has been utilised in the past and what you intend to grow.

The Organic approach to soil maintenance is a combination of good horticultural practise and the use of bulky organic materials such as compost and organic fertilisers.

Making garden compost

A compost heap is basically a recycling facility for organic material including kitchen and garden waste. Compost is a vital element in organic gardening providing food for plants and living organisms in the soil.

Compost has a rich dark texture when mature and resembles dark soil.

The process
Composting is defined as a breakdown of organic material. Composting , as well as the heat generated is produced by bacteria and fungi feeding on the plant or animal material in the heap.

What to compost: a large variety of material can be composted such as general household scraps, straw, dead cut flowers, weeds, grass clippings. Materials to avoid adding to your compost heap include: meat and fish scraps, glass and metal tins, disposable nappies, coal ash, plastics and synthetic fibres.

Making your compost
traditional composting involves utilising a large open bin where material is placed in layers. Repeated layers of kitchen scraps and straw/stalky material give the best results. The heap needs to be covered to avoid moisture loss and keep in the heat for optimal results. These types of heaps also require frequent turning over.

Making leaf mould

Leaves falling onto the ground in autumn naturally decompose to form a rich dark material called leafmould. Making leafmould for your organic garden is simple to do and the leafmould produced is an excellent soil conditioner.

Any leaves fallen from deciduous trees and shrubs can be collected and used for leafmould. Avoid using evergreen leaves unless they have been schredded and composted.

Making leafmould is as simple as collecting the right leaves and placing them into a container to rot. It is important to keep moisture in the system so collecting leaves while they are wet after rain is the best method.

Creating leafmould is a slow process, it may take anywhere from 9 months to 2 years to create a useable batch of leafmould.

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