When starting a garden it's important to know how to amend garden soil. Soil is the foundation of every garden. Good soil can be the difference between beautiful growing plants and plants that refuse to grow at all. If you plant in a bad quality soil, you will be able to tell by the way your plants look. If you know they get plenty of water, sun and compost, and they look 'unhappy' it's bound to be your soil quality.http://1greengeneration.elementsintime.com/?p=1077

If you are starting out with soil that is of a bad quality, you will have to amend the soil so that it becomes a good quality soil. Good soil is fertile and has a good texture, it also allows drainage, permeability, and aeration. You want to provide the most ideal environment for the roots of your plants. If you do this, they will thrive.http://www.ext.colostate.edu/Pubs/Garden/07235.html

The three most important nutrients your soil should have are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Nitrogen makes sure that your plants have healthy leafs and stems. Phosphorus is most important for the growth of flowers and roots. Potassium takes care of the overall health of the plant and supports its immune system. Besides these three main nutrients, you also want calcium, magnesium, zinc, and molybdenum to be present in your soil, to guarantee good plant growth.http://gardening.about.com/od/gardenprimer/a/Amending_Soil.htm

This page will inform you on how to decide what the current condition is of your soil and what you can do to adjust it where necessary. If all works out, you should end up with an excellent soil quality that allows plants to thrive.

Before starting any kind of garden, whether it's a vegetable, fruit or flower garden, you need to find out what kind of soil you are working with. Do this before planting anything. You don't want to find after planting that your crops or flowers aren't growing because of soil that is lacking in nutrients.

When a soil adjustment is required, you will need the following items:

• Water
• Mulch
• Soil amendment of your choice
• Gardening tools
• Compost

Amending the soil isn't difficult, you just need to know how to do it.

TESTING THE SOIL: There are several ways to find out what kind of soil you currently have. You need to find out what the pH is of your soil and what the levels are of the nutrients in it (if any). The pH of your soil is determined by the presence of acid and alkaline in it. It's measured on a range of 1.0 to 14.0 with 7.0 being neutral. A pH below 7.0 means you have a more acid soil, and a pH over 7.0 means it's has more alkaline. The pH that is needed really depends on what you are growing. However, most plants do well within a pH range of 6.2 - 6.8. http://gardening.about.com/od/gardenprimer/a/Amending_Soil.htm

If you don't know how to test soil pH, just visit your local garden center or nursery and purchase a soil pH test kit. The kit comes with full testing instructions. Besides just testing the pH there are also tests that check the phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium in the soil at the same time. http://www.planetnatural.com/site/xdpy/sgc/Soil%20Care/Soil%20pH%20&%20Test%20Kits

Depending on the results of your soil test, you can now start amending your soil. If you do need to amend your garden soil, keep in mind that it's best to do this after winter frost and rains are over, right before growing season. http://www.your-healthy-gardens.com/soil.html

NUTRIENTS:

• If your soil is lacking phosphorus you can adjust this by adding phosphate rock to it. A good measurement to go by is 9 lbs per 100 square feet.
• If your soil is lacking potassium you can add wood ash to it. A measurement of 1.5 lbs per 100 square feet should work.
• If your soil is lacking calcium and magnesium, mix 1 part agricultural lime and 1 part dolomite lime to it. The measurement to keep in mind for this is 5 lbs. per 100 square feet.
• If your soil is lacking calcium you can just add crushed egg shells to it. http://1greengeneration.elementsintime.com/?p=1077

TEXTURE OF SOIL: Besides the nutrients in soil, you will also have to amend the soil texture. The best soil to have is a loam soil. However, many soils are clay or sand like. To know which soil, you have do this simple test. Squeeze a hand full of soil together. If the soil clumps, it's more clay-like. If it falls apart through your fingers, it's more sandy-like. Texture of soil can be adjusted the following way.

• When you have a clay-like soil you want to increase its aeration, drainage and permeability. Adding peat, wood chips, tree bark or straw to the soil will adjust its texture
• When you have a sandy-like soil you want to make sure it holds onto moisture better. You can adjust this by adding peat, compost or vermiculite.

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When amending your soil there are a few things to keep in mind. First of all make sure you amend your soil 2-3 months before planting. This way it will have enough time to absorb all the adjustments made and adjust it's pH. Any amendments you apply to your soil needs to be applied about 4-5 inches into the soil. It's important to mix it well because else the pH won't be affected by your efforts. Amending soil is not a one time thing; after about two years the soil can go back to it's original state. It's a good thing to do another soil test at this point and apply the needed soil adjustments again. http://msucares.com/lawn/garden/vegetables/soil/ph.html http://www.thegardenhelper.com/vegetables.html

Another thing to try to prevent are weeds. Weeds overshadow your plant and restricts the light it needs to grow, they take up root space and consume the water that is meant for your desired plant. Besides this they don't look very nice in your garden. You can either pull out weeds manually or you can fight weeds from growing by putting mulch over the soil. Mulch also holds onto moisture and over time it fertilizes the ground. http://www.rodsgarden.50megs.com/vegetables.htm/

If you are growing vegetables, you can mix the left over plant (after harvesting) in a compost pile that you can re-use in your garden next time you plant. Of course you can purchase compost at your garden store, but you can also make your own this way.