Art Knapp Articles
Why Should You Use Great Soil?
in Tips and Tutorials
If you ask anyone who works in gardens or on farms why you should use great soil, they’ll probably look at you like you’re crazy. It’s like asking someone why they should eat nutritious food or why they should get out of the rain. The answer is obvious.
You use great soil because it’s better for the plants.
The easiest way to get great soil is to buy it. You can pick up a bag of bulk soil from any home and garden centre and that dirt is going to be full of all the nutrients that your plants will need. You fill up your garden, plant your seeds, and you’ll have a nice, healthy collection of plants, flowers, or fruits and vegetables.
But if you’ve been planting for years and your garden is starting to look a little ragged, maybe it’s time to make your soil great again. Remember that soil needs help to be great. That’s where fertilizer comes in.
In every bag of bulk fertilizer, you’ll get three main fertilizer ingredients that help plants grow:
- Nitrogen for new growth
- Phosphorus for root development
- Potassium for plant health
Make sure you’re picking the right fertilizer for your soil. Dirt in Surrey is very different from dirt in North Vancouver and you want to make sure the fertilizer has the right mix of ingredients for where you live.
While you’re thinking about fertilizer, don’t forget the supplies you’ll need with them—such as a fertilizer spreader or a garden hoe. You want to spread the fertilizer evenly and, by using the hoe, you’ll get much needed carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen down into your soil.
With just a little bit of work buying soil or using fertilizer to improve your soil, you can turn your garden into something worth bragging about to the neighbours.