Fall is a great time to improve your soil for next year’s garden.
Many of the resources needed are readily available and many are free at this time of the year.
Start by putting fall leaves to work in the garden. Use your mower with the bag attached to shred and collect fall leaves. Work them into the top 8 to 12” of soil.
They break down over winter, adding organic matter and nutrients to the soil before you begin planting in the spring.
Fall leaves are also a great resource for those of you minimizing soil disruption with no till, also known as no dig, soil care.
(https://www.milorganite.com/blog/garden-landscape/no-dig-gardening )
Spread several inches of the leaves over the soil surface.
The leaf mulch protects the soil in new and vacant gardens from erosion and compaction over the winter.
They keep the soil a bit cooler in the spring so you may need to adjust your planting times.
Cover bare soil in perennial gardens and mixed borders with fall leaves.
They are a great mulch, suppressing weeds, conserving moisture and improving the soil as they decompose.
A layer of leaves insulates the soil, helping insects and other wildlife that overwinter underground.
Plus, they are free.
Incorporating two to four inches of compost or other organic matter into the top 8 to 12 inches of soil is another option.
Organic matter adds nutrients but also improves drainage and aeration in heavy soil and increases water- and nutrient-holding capacity in fast draining soils.
Adding compost also builds the soil ecosystem.
It increases the number and activity of beneficial soil organisms such as good bacteria, fungi, microorganisms and insects.
Healthy soil grows healthier plants more resistant to pests and environmental stresses.
Another no till method uses a five-inch layer of compost on top of non-shiny cardboard, covering the soil surface.
The cardboard helps suppress the weeds and the compost provides the growing medium for seeds and transplants.
The compost is replenished yearly, and the cardboard eventually breaks down, adding organic matter to the soil.
Convert landscape and garden trimmings, fall leaves and compost into a rich planting medium with lasagna gardening.
This system employs composting methodology to build soil in free-standing or contained raised beds.
Start your lasagna garden by measuring and marking the layout of your garden bed.
Cut any grass and weeds in this area very short and cover with moist newspaper or cardboard.
This smothers any existing grass and weeds.
Next, add a two- to three-inch layer of peat moss or compost.
Top this with four to eight inches of plant debris such as leaves, plant-based kitchen scraps, herbicide-free grass clippings, straw or similar materials.
Sprinkle a bit of low nitrogen fertilizer over this layer.
Cover with an inch of compost. Repeat the layers, just like making lasagna, until your garden is 18 to 24 inches high.
Hugelkultur, or mound gardens take this one step further.
The bottom layer is made of logs, branches and fall leaves.
Do not include black walnut tree trimmings that are toxic to many plants or those of cedar and black locust that are very slow to decompose.
The rotting logs and branches absorb water, making it available to the plants in the garden.
As the tree trimmings decompose, they add organic matter and nutrients to the soil.
Then top this with a lasagna garden.
The lasagna and Hugelkultur beds gradually settle but the benefits remain.
Continue to build additional lasagna layers every few years on top of established beds as needed.
Select a method that best fits your gardening style.
Investing time in building healthy soil reaps years of benefits.
NOTES: Melinda Myers (www.MelindaMyers.com) has written more than 20 gardening books, including the Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition (https://www.amazon.com/Midwest-Gardeners-Handbook-2nd-maintain/dp/0785839526 ) and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” streaming courses. (https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/catalogsearch/result/?search_param=all&catid=&q=how+to+grow+anything ) and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Momentradio program (https://www.melindamyers.com/audio-video ). Myers is a columnist whose essays on gardening appear often at CityNewsOKC.com and CityNewsTulsa, as well as www.CapitolBeatOK.com. She is a contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Her U.S. mail address is Melinda Myers LLC, P.O. Box 798, Mukwonago, Wisconsin, 53149, United States
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