Build Better GARDEN SOIL

Starting a new garden isn’t difficult. Most people begin by going out into their yards with a shovel or garden tiller, digging up the ground, and putting in a few plants. Add a little mulch or compost, and you’re well on your way to homegrown vegetables. But in the long run, the success of your garden depends on healthy soil. The more you can do to keep your soil healthy, the more productive your garden will be, and the higher the quality of your crops.

There are many ways to do this, but they all revolve around two basic concepts: For more fertile soil, you need to increase organic matter and mineral availability, and whenever possible, you should avoid tilling the soil and leave its structure undisturbed.

Here are eight natural strategies to help you achieve healthy soil.

1 ADD MANURES FOR NITROGEN. All livestock manures can be valuable additions to soil — their nutrients are readily available to soil organisms and plants. In fact, manures make a greater contribution to soil aggregation than composts, which have already mostly decomposed.

You should apply manure with care. Although pathogens are less likely to be found in manures from homesteads and small farms than those from large confinement livestock operations, you should allow three months between application and harvest of root crops or leafy vegetables, such as lettuce and spinach, to guard against contamination. Tall crops, such as corn and trellised tomatoes, shouldn’t be prone to contamination.

However, because some nutrients from manures are readily available, they’re more likely to leach out of the soil (where they’re