Perhaps the biggest boost you can give your garden is great soil. The seed/plant needs all the help it can get to grow and fruit. Soil will over time lose its nutrients and minerals so it is important to keep adding to it all year round. You can spend a lot of money on bags of fertilizer, worm castings and bone meal or you can get resourceful and do it cheaper or for free.
The ideal PH for garden soil is 6.0 to 6.5. You can send in soil samples to various labs or the county cooperative extensions and receive info on what you should be adding for ideal soil. I personally have never done this, nor has anyone I know done this. I suppose if I was a commercial farmer this would be something I might look into trying this but I have been gardening long before soil analyzation was an option so I just wing it! The big three nutrients for good dirt are known by the acronym NPK, that stands for nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium. There are other nutrients but these are the most essential. If you purchase bagged soil or fertilizer make sure the bag is marked 10, 10, 10. Always read the label as to the ratio of the NPK as it can vary. This means equal parts of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium.
NITROGEN
Good soil needs nitrogen to support plant growth and production of chlorophyll. Not enough nitrogen and you will have a pale, spindly, weak looking plant with reduced flower or fruit. The plant is literally starving to death. Too much rain or over watering may deplete your nitrogen quickly. Snow is good for adding nitrogen to the soil as it picks it up in the atmosphere on its way to the ground. Late spring snow storms are referred to as “poor man’s fertilizer.” Too much nitrogen will cause an explosion of growth but at the expense of fruit or flowers. You will get beautiful beet greens, lovely carrot and parsnip tops, but no action below the ground or very stunted vegetables. Bush and pole beans will grow like mad but they will produce few blossoms and fewer beans.
PHOSPHATE
Phosphate is required for the overall health and vigor of plants. It helps with converting sunshine into what is needed for growth. You can google a more, very scientific explanation of this if you are interested. Phosphate stimulates root development, increases plant strength and development of fruit and flowers. Phosphate-deficient plants may look weak in early growth and by the time the problem is realized, it’s generally too late to correct. Phosphate does not leach out of the soil and can build up over time so use caution when adding this to your soil. Planting a cover crop can reduce too much phosphate but the crop must be completely pulled out by the roots and not tilled back into the soil. Also, avoid adding compost to your soil for a few years if you have high phosphate.
POTASSIUM
Potassium is vital for movement of water and nutrients within the plant. It also helps regulate the exchange of water vapor, carbon dioxide and oxygen. Some symptoms of low potassium are burnt-like edges on leaves and yellowing of leaf tissue. Older leaves are usually affected 1st and may curl up on the edges and eventually die. Too much potassium can affect how your plants absorb other critical nutrients. The only way to tell if you have too much potassium is to analyze the soil.
ADDING NUTRIENTS TO YOUR SOIL
Composting organic material is a great way to add much-needed nutrients to your soil. Composting is easy. We built a compost bin out of pallets. Add leaves, small twigs, vegetable peelings and some newspaper to bin. Do not allow it to dry out. Turn it periodically and wait for it to break down and then add to your soil. This is not a fast process so start doing this now to use in the future.
If you are purchasing manure from a farm be aware that Round Up and other herbicides may not break down in an animal’s waste and often will not break down during composting. It can seriously damage or kill your garden. The same goes for grass clippings and leaves off of people’s lawns. People love those nice, lush, emerald green lawns but they come with a high price of toxins and herbicides. I am fortunate enough to live in the woods where the leaves and pine needles have no contact with any herbicides. Herbicides can take years to break down. It can be in hay or straw also so be cautious about where you purchase your products.
If you raise rabbits, their manure can go straight into your garden without worrying about burning your plants. It breaks down very quickly. Same for goat droppings. Chicken manure must be aged (like a fine wine) or composted otherwise it will burn your plants. I dump chicken manure on my raised beds in late fall before the snow comes. This allows it to break down over the winter and the soil is ready come spring. I also add wood ash to the raised beds before the snow comes to improve the soil. I do add both chicken manure and wood ash to the greenhouse beds but I turn them over first before adding it as no snow falls in the greenhouse unless a moose walked through it or it collapsed from the weight of snow. Unfortunately, these things happen where I live and you deal with it. We have tons of deer in our area and they leave huge piles of poop everywhere. I take a walk with a bucket and hand trowel and scoop it up getting both exercise and free fertilizer. If Mr. Moose happens to leave me a poop deposit, all the better.
I have been hearing quite a bit about using human urine as a fertilizer and have done some research on it. Everything I have read reflects positively on using it. Dilute 1 part urine to 3 parts water and allow to sit for a day then dump it on your soil. My husband and I are blessed not to be on any medications so we have clean urine. I have read that the only medicine that could really affect your urine would be chemotherapy but I would not risk using urine from someone on any kind of medications. Pee is free so ultimately I will be trying this in 2025. It will only cost me a 5-gallon bucket!
If you have access to fish bones and guts, this stuff is great for soil. You can soak the bones and guts for a really powerful fertilizer but the smell is very bad but, the results are worth it. My flowers never looked so good as when my husband dumped “fish juice” on them. I have also buried the guts and bones in the soil but make sure you go deep with them or something, like a raccoon, will dig it up. I have only had one plant dug up due to something looking for a dead fish body in all my years of using fish guts for fertilizer and I blamed myself for not burying it deep enough. The stores sell fish fertilizer and it is very expensive so if you can make your own, go for it.
After a good spring rain, our road is loaded with worms and night crawlers. You can either pick them up or pay good money for a bag of worm castings. I personally find worms to be disgusting and no way am I going to pick them up with my hands. They are slimy and gross and just yucky, but I can scoop them into a small bucket using a garden trowel and never actually touch them. Problem solved! I do pick up garden snakes and turn them loose in the garden beds for insect control.
Egg shells are a wonderful source of calcium for soil. Allow them to dry, crush them up and I add them right into the dirt all season long. I just work the dirt a bit with a hand cultivator and dump in the shells. I also do the same with coffee grinds. I have a large coffee can that I keep adding the daily eggshells and coffee grounds to and mash down the eggshells with a potato masher. When the can is full, into the garden it goes.
Epsom salt is also very good for your soil and plants for magnesium. Add 2 tablespoons of Epsom (Magnesium) salt to a gallon of water and water your plants. You can do this every month during the growing season.
If you are fortunate enough to live near the beach, sea shells, and seaweed are great for boosting your soil. Shells need crushing, like bones, and they need to be worked directly into the soil. Seaweed can also be dried or composted and worked into the soil.
Bone Amendments
Bone meal or ground-up bones, are another inexpensive soil amendment. You can use bones from a meal. Clean off bones and dry them in the oven until they are brittle. You can also use a dehydrator. Place them in a sack and using a small mallet or hammer, beat those bones! You can use a rolling pin over the smaller bones or a mortar and pestle to ground them into flour. Work the bone meal into the soil. You can also use bones from animal carcasses in the woods. I come across old bones all the time and most of the time they are so old and brittle no drying is required. A small bag of bone meal is approximately $ 20.
So, hopefully you will find some of these ideas helpful and less expensive then dropping $20 on a very small bag of organic fertilizer. Working in soil amendments can be done year round, depending on your weather and you are maintaining a constant, steady healthy soil. It’s winter here in Maine and the ground is frozen solid and snow covered so I can only dream of seedlings, vegetables, and beautiful flowers. But hey, spring is coming! Start researching and planning and put those long cold days to use and plan to grow some food! Then start learning to preserve your harvest. Many blessings to you and your families for 2025.