So. Plot #2 started off with some difficulties (read: Back in the Saddle), but after amending the soil something fierce, it was starting to look hospitable again. See, vegetables grow in dirt. And although sun and water are important, the dirt is everything. If you’re a fancy gardener, you call it soil.
So we amended the soil by working in a generous helping of compost. For our 3′x9′ plot, we gave her two wheelbarrow’s worth of the stuff we’d “grown” in the on-site bins last year, plus another two large bags (maybe 25 lbs each). It required a lot of shoveling.
We used a pretty straightforward method for turning in the soil:
- Dig up about 6″-12″ of soil from one half of the garden plot, and pile it up on the other half.
- Spread half the compost over the side you just dug up.
- Shovel the dug-up pile of dirt back over the half from whence it came.
- Using the shovel, turn the dirt over itself in deep scoops, mixing the layers of soil and compost together.
- Rake out and smooth, and repeat for the other half.
It went well, as evidenced by the slight stiffening in our backs by the time we were done. Then came the fun, if totally meaningless, part. Square footing it.
Now, I suppose it might be blasphemous to talk smack about anybody’s gardening technique. Gardeners seem to be, by definition, a pretty laid back bunch. And the square foot method sounds really clever in theory. The theory being that if you plant your crops in individual square feet, you can fit more plants in per square foot and yield a larger crop. But as far as I can tell, it’s really just a simple matter of plant your plants closer together. I mean, doesn’t it boil down to spacing, whether you plant them in squares or in rows? Nevertheless, we’re going through the motions to give it a shot.
Once we sectioned off our squares (which in fact were more like rectangles, but who’s measuring), we went ahead and transplanted the last of the starters we’d bought a couple of weeks ago. Now here comes a perfect example of why we’re called amateur gardeners: it was at this stage that we realized we’d forgotten to test the damn soil to begin with.
Because remember: soil is everything. More importantly: never deny your boyfriend a chance to geek out with a soil testing kit…
Luckily for us, the dirt was good. Weighing in at about 6.0 - 6.5 on the pH scale, our soil was going to be great for veggies. See, pH affects how plants grow—some like the soil very acidic (below 7.0), while others prefer it alkaline (above 7.0). Veggies tend to dig on soil coming in at about 5.5-6.5. The pH of your soil will also impact whether certain important nutrients become accessible to the plant as it grows. For example:
- Nitrogen (N) shows up in soil above 5.5 pH.
- Phosphorous (P) shows up in 6.0-7.0 pH soil.
This is one reason why it makes sense to plan your veggie garden carefully, deciding which crops to plant together. Crops liking the same pH make sense together—and make it easier on you once you start getting hungry, since they’ll give more successful yields.
So, moral of the story: test your soil before amending it, then add the necessary nutrients based on the results.
