Many times when I am feeling particularly proud about my garden, potting soil comes to mind. I love to see the full-size flowers in my bright colored pots; the tiny buds looking very fragile within their own tiny pots. It is really quite satisfying to take a single fragile bloom out of the decorative package, take it from the box, feed it some water and give it a little liquid feed and then plant it in a slightly bigger pot. I think this is still possible with some plants-I prefer the herbs to be growing in little trays or seed trays, as opposed to directly in the garden.
There is, of course, far more to potting soil than just standard potting compost. There are special soils for certain plants, for example. And, of course, many ways to make your own, homemade compost.
But, for the most part, garden potting soil is ready made and very inexpensive. It is absolutely loaded with all you need to grow strong healthy plants, whether they are sun-loving or shade-loving. In addition to having the plant roots ventilated and healthy, potting soil will also help to retain that moisture in the plant pots, thereby providing much needed moisture for the plant.
If the plants are healthy and have been disease-free, potting soil will serve the exact opposite purpose. Keep this in mind when you are selecting your soil. diseased plants in poor health are very likely to contract problems as their health deteriorates over time.
If you’re a beginning gardener, I do strongly encourage you to experimentation with your own, home-grown potting soil. It’s often not as hard as it seems, and you will be surprised how easy and how much fun it can be to make your own.
There’s no reason why your garden can’t have a healthy environment all year long. Healthy plants usually never contract problems as the health of the plant deteriorates over time; as it is, with proper maintenance, your garden soil will become so rich with nutrients, and that soil is full of all the little nutrients the plant needs to feed on, it ishealthier than water.
Healthy plants [http://www.namedroot.co.uk/plants_5/can-pca.html] are also much needier, especially in the initial stages of growth. You can see this in the plant’s reaction to temperature. If it is wilting, or drying up quickly, it is likely to be stressed, and will take time to get used to the new conditions, and the new environment will likely have a less than ideal condition for the plant to survive. So, it will take a while to get used to the new conditions, even with the best potting soil. So, while a wilted plant in good health is usually resilient, a wilted plant in poor health will usually require more care.
Good garden soil has a good texture, which means it will not ‘fall apart’ from a heavy rain, and in the case of clay, will not pool with water so readily. As clay soil is typically very poor in terms of nutrients, adding organic amendments to the soil like compost or peat will enhance the plants’ ability to absorb nutrients.
Ideally, at the optimum of pH 7.0, the clay soils in your garden can be turned into ‘sandy’ soil by incorporating organic amendments, or you can add gypsum to the soil. Sandy soil is ideal for drainage and will help to improve the conditions for plant roots by not only retaining water, but also providing moisture to the roots so that they can thrive. For clay soils, organic amendments are not the solution, but rather the problem. Methods to amend clay soils successfully include working the soil with acidifying compost and mulches, or creepers.
