Container Gardening Secrets of the Soil

!: Container Gardening Secrets of the Soil

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You'll probably hear gardeners talk to sandy soil or clay soil, in deciding what type of soil, the plants do best in. Have you ever wondered why there are so many different soil types and what is the difference? Although it may sound rather complicated, it's easy and once you understand the basics, you can change and the soil for your containers for the plants to adapt to grow. It's like a recipe for a cake mix, but easier, you do not have to cookit!

All soil is made of broken rocks and decaying animal and vegetable matter, called humus or compost. Over millions of years the planet's surface rocks crumbled and was shut down, worn on the actions of wind, water, heat and cold. Most of these hard-rock has been worn to sand mold.

Sand

Sea beds in our oceans and beaches around our shores are great masses of pure sand. If our earth was just sand, it would be very unproductive, just think of the greatDeserts, where almost everything grows. It is thanks to the millions of life forms both large and small, who dies and decays over the years that the earth is rich in food, the plants grow and thrive to make.

When we talk of sandy soil, we speak more of the sand as a sort of filler, mixed with humus or compost of decaying matter, often of animal waste. Therefore, gardeners price well rotted horse manure, so grab a lot and they in their countryenrich. The sand helps stop soil is compressed and allows air and water through the soil, which is required by plants and the large number of small insects and microbes that it flow call home.

Silt

These are small particles of quartz and feldspar worn stones that are larger than sand, but heavier than the clay in the water. Think of rock dust.

Limestone

A different kind of worn stone, found in limestone. This soil is worn out particles formedLimestone, which in turn consists of the skeletons, shells and houses, as the snails and crabs that have lived and died millions of years. These creatures picked lime particles from the water they lived in the formation of their shells as protection from larger animals. Even today we see this happening in the coral reef. If they die, their hard skeletons remain in layers of river and sea beds, and then over time this great mass of the shells were crushed and pressed by geologicalEvents to bring us the limestone.

Some of the old shells can still be seen in the limestone. Marble is a crystalline form of this particular type of rock, which is chalk. One way to test whether a stone lime is easily in the acidic, like vinegar fall. This will react with calcium and since there to bubble. Therefore, it is can be used and that soil is acidic in balance

Clay

Now, if a stone is worn by the elements, it is called "mechanical" action, but there is a secondType of soil called clay. This occurs when a stone called heated by a carbon dioxide gas, a form is being attacked by carbon dioxide, exhale as all living things. This is not a mechanical action or abrasion of rock, but a chemical treatment, where the stone is eaten. Sand and silt is just a big rock into smaller pieces worn as breaking a lump of sugar. It's still the same thing it started as, but has only become smaller. Clay is the result of a chemical change,You start with a kind of rock, but ends with something else. Clay soil is sometimes called mud soils because of the water they contain called. Compacted clay is waterproof and has been used to line the pond.

Peat

Peat is not rock-based but is a form of compost or humus. It forms in swampy areas where decaying plant material down completely disintegrating is slowed by acidic conditions. Did you ever see the contents of an organic waste container that is wet? IfYou have to add paper or straw to make it balance? The peat bogs grow very slowly at a rate of about one millimeter per year. Some of the peat in the garden center sold 9000 years was taken over by the last ice age to education. That is why many people are struggling to preserve bogs and ask gardeners and farmers use peat substitutes. This is more sour and has neutralized the mix for acid loving plants or soil that has too muchLimestone.

Clay soil

Finally, and above all, we have clay soil. Loam is a mixture of different soil types that grow the best type of land use are in. This is considered an approximate ratio of 2 to 2 to 1 sand silt clay, with plenty of natural humus. Loams feel gloomy, wet and retain water easily and allows air circulation when not compressed. This is the holy grail of gardening, and when that happens naturally in your garden, you are blessed. Within reason, the more organicQuestions you can add it, the better it will be.

The search for excellence

Fortunately, now that you know the basic secrets of the earth, you can change and blend these various Components, the right balance for your containers and planters to make the needs of your plants suit. The mixing of sand / silt with clay and add compost from your compost or your Wormery and then balancing it with limestone or peat (or peat substitute) to make it easy to sour. That is why I said itis like mixing a cake recipe, and many gardeners have to actually make their favorite recipes "ground".

The old cottage gardener does the ready-mixed soil or clay soil, its moisture and its rich dark color. If you squeeze a handful of clay, the soil tends to hold together, but not strongly bound. When you open your hand, you will see that it is a little spotty. So you know you have the perfect growing medium for your container.