What Goes into Your Soil

             Put yourself in this picture.  Its a beautiful day.  Theres not a cloud in the sky.  The temperatures in the middle 80s.  And there you are in your backyard picking loads of vegetables from your own small garden tucked away in the corner of your property--tomatoes, peas, onions, corn...Youve grown them all.  More than you ever dreamed possible from such a small space.

            Impossible?

            Of course not.

            After all, thats exactly what an Intensive Postage Stamp garden is intended to do and is what youre going to learn how to do in the next few chapters.

            The condition of the soil, which well be discussing, can actually make or break the productiveness of our garden.  It is in effect, the motor; and if we expect to grow a lot of vegetables in a small space (as we do), its extremely important to build the very best soil-motor possible.

            Look at it this way.  Suppose you buy a Lincoln Continental and after you get it home you remove its engine and install a Volkswagen motor.  Then you start on a trip.  You wouldnt expect to rip up the road getting to your destination, because you know that a Volkswagen engine cant handle a Lincoln Continental.

            But suppose instead of replacing the Continental engine with a Volkswagen motor you simple leave the original engine in place and take off on your trip.  Now, if you want to, you can beat most of the cars on the road.

            Now, imagine that you take the Continental engine out again, and this time (providing you can figure out a way to do it) you put the engine in a Volkswagen body.  Now you can beat anything in sight...and then some.

            Thats something like what were trying to do.  We want to squeeze every last bit of productivity out of the soil in our IPS (Intensive Postage Stamp) garden.  What well do in effect is to install a Lincoln engine in a Volkswagen body.  Were going to make the soil in your garden super productive.

            We know a would-be gardener who simply goes out in her backyard, lightly tills the soil, drops in some seed, waters, and calls it a day.  She doesnt improve the soil structure or make sure that it contains the proper nutrients.  She thereafter fails to water regularly or care much about nurturing her plants.   What she does do is produce the lousiest-looking vegetables that youve ever seen.  She claims that mother nature hates her, and she may just be right.

            Naturally wed all like to pop seeds in the ground and have the garden automaticaly crank out carloads of super vegetables.  But unfortunately it doesnt work like that.

            There is a way out, however, for it youll take the time in the beginning to build your soil right, your IPS (Intensive Postage Stamp) garden will reward you (from then on) with some of the greatest vegetables that youve ever seen.  Now, as a starter, lets take a peek at whats under the ground in your backyard.

 How Soil Works

            All that most people see when they look at their soil is a bunch of dirt.  Its the stuff that comes in on the kids clothes,...that has to be swept off the back porch,...or that has to be cleaned up off the kitchen floor.  Actually, soil is a lot more than that.

            Every square foot of soil swarms with millions of bacteria and other microorganisms.  Potentially the organic material thats in the soil or the raw material that you deposit there--leaves, grass clippings, garbage, and so forth--contains essential elements that plants can use in their own growth.  Unfortunately, these elements are tied up in such a way that our vegetables cant touch them.  Fortunately for our plants, the soil bacteria rip into the dead material in the soil, breaking it down and converting it into forms that plants can build with.

            How fast the soil bacteria act on this raw material depends on the nature of the material itself, the temperature, the amount of air available, and the soil moisture.  In the spring, when the soilwarms up, the numbers of bacterial in the soil and the bacterial action increase tremendously.  When you add fresh organic material, the bacteria immediately attack it, breaking it down into food for your plants.  The bacterial organisms themselves need nitrogen to take care of their growing needs.  And if you dont have nitrogen in the material that you put in the garden, the bacteria will end up stealing it from the vegetables youre trying to grow.

            You get around this problem by building a compost pile for organic material.  This pile lets the initial bacterial decomposition take place outside the soil.  Then when you turn this material into your soil, the nutrients are in a form that plants ca use immediately.  (Well get to this shortly.)

 How Soil is Structured

            Basically, there are three kinds of soil: clay, sand, and loam.  Clay soil has particles so small that you cant see without help.  They are extremely close together and take in water slowly.  Once the clay particles absorb water, they hold it so tightly that its almost impossible for plants to utilize it; and air cant get in.  When clay dries, its even worse.  Plant roots have difficulty penetrating, and the soil itself contains little air and water.

            Sand, on the other hand, has particles many times larger than clay.  Air penetrates deeply, and water moves through it too rapidly, dissolving away many of the nutrients.

            Loam is somewhere between these two extremes. Loam has clay, sand, and a good supply of decomposed organic material called humus.  The grains have good structure.  The soil drains well, yet retains enough water for plant growth.  Air can circulate, and the soil provides plenty of room for roots to grow easily.

            Dont worry if your backyard isn't loam.  As we mentioned in Chapter 1, in an IPS garden we completely renovate the soil so that it doesnt really matter what you start with.

            We might also mention here a thing that some gardeners seem to worry about a great deal: the pH of their soil.  This is the measure of whether your soil is sweet (alkaline) or sour (acid).  The pH scale runs from 0 for extremely acid 7 for neutral, to 14 for extremely alkaline.  Most vegetables prefer soils that are neutral or slightly acid, that is, with a pH of 6.5 to 7.0.  Theres no doubt the pH is important.  Generally, however, when we make up our IPS beds, we automatically make them just about right for vegetables.  Unless youve got a really unusual problem, like trying to garden near alkali flats or salt marshes (alkaline soil) or in a peat bog (acid soil), just forget about the pH problem and simply make up your garden according to the instructions given in this book.  If you do have one of those freak problems, contact your local nursery and ask how other gardeners in the area have handled it.  Once youve solved this, then you can proceed to make up your IPS garden in the regular manner.

          Optimum pH Range for Vegetables

            PH                                          Vegetable

6-8                                                     Beets, cabbage, melons

6 to 7.5                   Peas, spinach, summer squash

6 to 7                      Cauliflower, celery, chives, endive,horseradish, lettuce, onions, radishes, rhubarb

5.5 to 7.5               Corn, pumpkins, tomatoes

5.5 to 6.8              Beans, carrots, cucumbers, parsnips, peppers, rutabaga, winter squash

5.5 to 6.5             Eggplant, watermelon

4.8 to 6.3             Potatoes

       Getting the Ingredients for your IPS Garden Soil

            I dont have to tell you that plants need to eat just like you do.  Now, thats not technically correct, of course, but everybody knows that plants need certain soil conditions and certain nutrients--sixteen of them--in order to be healthy and vigorous.  There are three major nutrients--nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K)--and a number of minor and trace elements, including calcium, zinc, iron, manganese, copper, sulfur, magnesium, and a few others.

            To provide these nutrients and  organic material in our IPS gardens, we add compost, manure, blood meal, bone meal, and wood ash (or a substitute).  Sometimes we add a fifth ingredient, fish emulsion.  In the remainder of this chapter we will take a closer look at each of these, because they are what make our Intensive Postage Stamp gardens thrive.  In the next chapter, well show you what we do with these ingredients once we have them.

Compost--and a Temporary Substitute

            Probably the most important ingredient that youll add to your IPS bed is compost--the mixture of decayed leaves, grass clippings, garbage, and other organic matter that you prepare yourself in piles and then add to the soil (you can also buy compost in quanties from a landscape supply firm).  In composting, the organic matter is broken down by bacterial action into food that your vegetable plants can use immediately.  Without it (or some good substitute), youll get only so-so vegetables.  With it, the ground seems to come alive.  Also it helps to give the soil a lighter texture, letting the soil breathe.

            You can prepare compost very easily.  Detailed instructions for different types of composting are given in the appendix.  Most composting, though, takes time.  It can take a few weeks or even a few months for the raw organic material in a compost pile to break down into compounds that vegetables can use.  For this reason you should begin as soon as possible to build your compost pile for your garden.

            In the meantime, dont let a lack of compost stop you from preparing an IPS garden.  Simply substitute rotted manure (see below) whenever we call for compost or buy some and work it into your garden.

Animal Manures

            We really need animal manures in our garden, for they add many needed nutrients, especially nitrogen.  But just to make the choice a little harder for us, every one of them has different properties and varying amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

            Generally, you should use rotted manure, not fresh.  The bacteria in your soil will need extra nitrogen to bread down fresh manure, and this can divert some of the nitrogen from your plants.  Moreover--like organic materials that have been composted--manure that has already rotted or decomposed is in the form that your plants can use more easily.  We get ours from a nearby stable where they put it out in January and its well rotted by March when you need it for your garden.

            Dried manure, which you can buy from a nursery (or a landscape materials firm, is also usually just right, and it can be worked into your garden soil directly from the sack.

            Do not buy steer manure, however, because its high salt content offsets any benefit that the manure might have.  Although the salts can be leached out by watering, this leaching also washes out the nitrogen.

            Hen, horse, sheep, and rabbit manures are known as hot manures because of their high nitrogen content.  Cow and hog manures are called cold manures because they are low in nitrogen, and break down fairly slowly.  We prefer using horse manure, since we think this gives us the best results.  You can also buy composet and soil with manure in it directly from a landscape materials supplier.

            We suggest you start out using whatever you find available (given the cautions above) and then later experiment to see what gives you the best results in your particular garden. If you prefer not haul your own manure we suggest you call a landscape materials supplier and see what they have avaiable. Most of these firms will deliver.

Nitrogen

            Blood meal, which you can buy at nurseries, contains up to 15 percent nitrogen and usually some phosphorus and potassium.  Activated sewerage sludge (Milogranite) contains up to 6 percent nitrogen and is processed and sold by a number of cities.  Cottonseed meal contains about 7 percent nitrogen.

Major Natural Sources of Nitrogen

Material                      Nitrogen Percent            Apply Per 100 Square Feet

Blood Meal                           15.0                            5-10 pounds

Cottonseed meal                   8.0                               10 pounds

Fish meal                             8.0                               5-10 pounds

Bat giamp                          10.0                              5 pounds

Phosphorus

            Generally we supply phosphorus (one of the major nutrients) to our plants by adding bone meal.  Bone meal has a whopping amount of phosphoric acid--20 to 25 percent or more--as well as 1 to 2 percent nitrogen; and vegetables love it.  You can buy steamed bone meal where garden products are sold.

            If you like, you can substitute rock phosphate or super phosphate for bone meal.  This is a finely ground rock powder, containing up to 30 percent phosphoric acid.

Potassium

            Wood ash supplies the potassium needed by your plants.  Most wood ash contains 7 to 8 percent potassium and can be obtained simply by burning wood outdoors or in your fireplace.  (Wood ashes should not be allowed to stand in the rain, because most of the potassium will be leached away.)

            If you have trouble getting wood ash, its possible to substitute greensand and granite dust, which you can buy at many nurseries.  Both of these materials contain about 6 to 8 percent potassium.  Both also contain a number of minor and trace mineral nutrients.

         You can now buy commercial organic fertilizers containing these ingredients (already mixed for you) from most nurseries. Many gardeners start out this way, rather than trying to handle the individual ingredients.

 Fish Emulsion

            Fish emulsion generally has 5 to 10 percent nitrogen and sometimes phosphorus and potassium, although many brands are marked on the bottle 5-0-0, which, in nursery language, means respectively 5 percent nitrogen, no phosphorus, and no potassium. We use fish emulsion in an IPS garden about every two weeks to add nitrogen to those plants that are pretty heavy feeders.  Well discuss how much you need and when in Chapter 7, in treating individual vegetables.

            Some gardeners prefer to use liquid seaweed in place of fish emulsion.  It contains nitrogen, phosphorus, and a number of minerals.

            Any of these fertilizers can be added to your soil to give your feeding plants an extra boost.  Avoid, however, all chemical fertilizers.

The Earthworm

            Earthworms, like bacteria, are great for the soil and will be extremely helpful in keeping your IPS bed in shape.  By burrowing, feeding, and excreting, earthworms let air and moisture in and break up the soil particles.  They usually dont go very deep, but the minute that plant roots start going down, earthworms go with them, making the soil better.

            The gray pink ones (Helodrilus caliginosus and Helodrilus trapezoides) are important to your garden.  The red one (Eisenia foetida), the fishworm, is not so good since he wants to fool around in damp spongy places instead of getting down to work in garden soils.  Youll find him great in compost piles, however, and later you may want to buy a few to add when you make your own compost.

            The earthworm improves the soil by swallowing it and later expelling it in the form of castings.  What actually happens is that the earthworm takes in the soil, grinds it up, mixes it with calcium carbonate, pulverizes it, sends it on through the intestine to be digested by enzymes, and then excretes it.  These final earthworm castings contain nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, all elements that our vegetables need.  And when the earthworm dies, his body adds a good nitrogen fertilizer to the soil.

            It is important to note that chemicals and earthworms dont mix, at least not well.  Chemical fertilizers seem to decrease the number of earthworms in the soil, killing them or driving them off; ammonium sulfate is particularly harmful.  Many insect sprays also are toxic to earthworms and will cause the population in the soil to dwindle.

            Earthworms actually are a little finicky about the soil in general.  You cant put them in infertile or hard, clay soils and expect good results.  They like rich soil; and if they dont have it, they just take off.

            Earthworms make a good soil even better.  So, when possible, dig up earthworms from other parts of the yard (or anywhere else) and deposit them in your future vegetable garden.  Youll just have to search around by turning dirt over with a shovel until you find them, but generally there are less of them in most flower beds.  You can also now order eartheworms through many seed catalogs.

            That takes care of the preparation of your soil.  Remember that creating the proper kind of soil bristling with the right organic nutrients is the most important thing that you can do in your garden.  And your vegetables will love you for it.  In the next chapter well show you how to put these materials into your garden.