The better the soil health, the bigger the harvest. PHOTO CREDIT HEATHER CARSTON
AS you can see by the giant cabbage above, our gardens are producing well with the last of the late autumn, spring plantings now coming to fruition. Brassicas like these do take a lot out of the soil however and as I look to the summer plantings, and the rotation of the crops, it’s a good time to look at what soil biology is all about. This helps to keep good quality harvests in mind. Especially when you are restricted to a certain area of space in which to grow them. PARAMOUNT To begin, the health of your soil is paramount. Every plant you put into the ground will react accordingly to the soil biology in which it is planted. This will show in the growth of your plants, their ability to handle pests and diseases and the overall nutritional value they will give you. In between crops, it is important to remember it’s a bit like a dog having pups – you need to condition it hard to keep up the optimum performance. To do that, I use a basis of three things: good quality compost that we have created from combinations such as lawn clippings, and autumn leaf fall. If the harvest has, like the cabbages, been heavy feeders, I’ll incorporate a garden booster such as the one Tui puts out. SHEEP PELLETS It’s a good idea to have sheep pellets on hand and mix this in with the compost and depleted soil, and a mix of the perennial blood and bone. Finally, a good liquid seaweed fertiliser is also a must. Combine all of this with your soil and it will go a long way in ensuring your next lot of crops will also be of really good quality. Take a note though – for vegetables particularly, don’t plant the same crop in the same place for at least a year or two. Rotate your crops around your gardens because each has a different feeding pattern and will take less or more than another from the soil. HEALTH BENEFITS If your soil isn’t healthy as you might like, or is a new garden you are breaking in, planting potatoes is an old-fashioned way of creating good, friable (crumbly) soil that will stand your garden in good stead for years to come – provided you keep feeding it. Finally, the success of your soil is always heralded by a happy population of earthworms. Look for these and if they are scarce, you know you need to be adding to the soil to create a home for them, which provides additional nutrition for your plants.
