How to make the soil in the garden loose. How to make clay soil fertile and loose? Siderates - summer resident's assistants

Clay soil is difficult to cultivate, such soil is not fertile and allows the cultivation of limited varieties of garden crops. You can fix the situation, but it will take time and a lot of effort. There are proven methods based on removing excess moisture by changing the relief, fertilizing, and growing green manure.

clay soil

Clay consists of many tiny particles that are strongly compacted together when exposed to moisture. A monolithic mass in small quantities passes oxygen and water through itself, which is detrimental to most plants. In clay, biological processes are inhibited. Garden crops begin to wither, yields decrease and many plants die.

Clay soil is considered to be soil, which contains up to 80% clay and 20% sand. At home, it is impossible to accurately determine the percentage. An example analysis can be done with a simple experiment:

• In the garden, they dig a hole half the depth of a shovel bayonet. Take a handful of soil with your hand and knead the dough out of it. If the soil is dry, you need to add a little water.
• A sausage is rolled out of the finished mass, after which a ring with a diameter of 5 cm is rolled up.

If the sausage cracked when rolled into a ring, then the soil is loamy. The absence of cracks indicates increased clay content. In order to grow garden crops on such soil, it must be prepared.

Clay soil has negative qualities:

• heaviness;
• poorly conducts heat;
• poorly passes oxygen;
• water stagnates on the surface, which swamps the bed;
• moisture to the roots of the plant does not enter well;
• under the sun, wet clay turns into a crust, the strength of which can be compared to concrete.

All of these negative qualities interfere with the normal biological process necessary for each plant.

It's important to know! On the surface of clay soil up to 15 cm thick, a small amount of humus may be contained. This is more of a minus than a plus. The problem lies in the increased acidity, which has a bad effect on plants.

It is possible to turn clay into fertile land, but the work is laborious and will take at least three years.

Site preparation

Water with clay form an explosive mixture, which, when solidified, differs little from concrete. Stagnation of moisture in a rainy summer threatens to swamp the site. Nothing will grow in this garden. Improvement begins with the arrangement of drainage. The system is designed to remove excess moisture. To figure out if drainage is needed, conduct a small experiment:

• A depression of about 60 cm is dug on the site. The width of the pit is taken arbitrarily.
• The hole is filled to the top with water and left for a day.

If after the specified time the water is not completely absorbed, the site needs drainage.

Surface drainage

The system involves digging small trenches around the entire perimeter of the site. Moreover, they are dug under a slope so that water is drained by gravity to a designated place, for example, a ravine.

They dig trenches along the paths, along the perimeter of the beds, lawns, recreation areas. Drainage trays are laid around the buildings, closed with a grate. All surface drainage is connected to one system, which can drain water into wells.

deep drainage

Heavily flooded areas with a high location of groundwater require the arrangement of deep drainage. The principle of the system is the same, only instead of the usual shallow grooves, perforated pipes - drains - are buried deep into the ground. The mains are usually laid to a depth of 1.2 m. The pipes are connected to storm sewer trays, surface drainage trenches and drainage wells. The distance between the drains depends on the depth of their laying and the composition of the soil, but not more than 11 m.

To improve drainage in a heavily flooded area, it is optimal to equip a combined drainage consisting of a surface and deep system.

In addition to arranging drainage, they are improving the relief in the clay area. They try to raise beds, flower beds, a vegetable garden by embankment of soil. Water will drain faster from higher ground.

Fertilization

Clay soil is infertile. Mineral fertilizers will not help here. Only organic will help out. Sand will help to loosen the soil, and liming can reduce acidity.

Peat with manure

Improvement of clay soil begins with the introduction of manure or peat. Organics are added at the rate of 2 buckets per 1 m 2 of the garden. The earth is dug up to a depth of 12 cm. Over time, earthworms and beneficial microorganisms will breed in this layer. The soil will become friable, moisture and oxygen will begin to penetrate inside.

Attention! Manure is used only overripe, otherwise the roots of the plants will burn. Peat should not have a rusty tint. This indicates large iron impurities that have a bad effect on vegetation. Before entering into the soil, peat is well weathered.

Sawdust

Wood chips are considered good organics and loosen the soil perfectly. However, during decay, they pull nitrogen from the soil, reducing its fertility. You can fix the problem by wetting the sawdust before adding a solution of urea to the soil. The fertilizer is diluted with water to a concentration of 1.5%.

Advice! Best suited are sawdust soaked in the urine of pets that have been used as bedding.

Sawdust is applied at the rate of 1 bucket per 1 m 2 of the garden. The earth is dug up to a depth of 12–15 cm.

Sand with humus

Sand will help loosen the clay soil. However, by itself it is not fertile. Sand is brought in with humus. This should be done every fall. The amount of sand depends on what crops will grow in the garden. For example, for growing vegetables and flowers, 1 m 2 of land is covered with 1 bucket of sand. When growing cabbage, apple trees, beets, the amount of sand per 1 m 2 is reduced to 0.5 buckets. After at least 5 years, the thickness of the fertile layer will reach 18 cm.

Important! Sand with humus must be applied annually. Useful substances from the humus of the plant will be taken and they must be replenished. The sand will settle in a year. If you do not make a new portion of it, the soil will again become clayey and heavy.

Soil liming

Soil liming helps to reduce acidity and increase fertility. Do this in the fall once every five years. Hydrated lime is added to the soil to reduce acidity, and chalk helps to increase fertility, as it contains a lot of calcium. Good results are shown by the introduction of wood ash, dolomite flour and ground limestone. The amount of applied substances depends on the composition of the soil. You can't do it randomly. A preliminary analysis is required.

Cultivation of green manure

Annual plants called green manure are well suited as soil fertilizers. They are sown before planting vegetables or after harvest. Young greens are mowed, but they are not removed from the garden, but dug up with the ground. The most common siderates are:

• Rye. Sow in August after harvest. Greens can be dug up in late autumn or spring before planting.
• Clover. The site will not be used for planting horticultural crops for three years. Clover is mowed annually and the green mass is left to lie in the garden. In the third year, the site is dug up to a depth of 12 cm. Clover roots will also rot and become additional fertilizer.
• Phacelia. Sow in the spring after the snow melts. At least one month after germination, but three weeks before planting, the green mass is mowed. The garden is dug up to a depth of 15 cm.
• Mustard. White mustard is considered green manure No. 1. It is sown in early spring and mowed when the seedlings reach a height of up to 10 cm. It can be sown in August after harvesting vegetables, and mowed in autumn before frost. The soil with green manure is dug up to a depth of 12 cm.

Empty areas of the garden can be planted ground cover plants. In the heat, they will prevent overheating of the soil, retain moisture and become organic fertilizer in the future.

Gardeners adopt the experience of the older generation and often use folk methods improvement of clay soil. Here are a few of them:

• Large clods help to improve the structure of the soil. In autumn, the site is not interrupted with a walk-behind tractor, but is dug up manually with a shovel. Large clods of earth retain snow in winter, and warm up better in spring. Fertility will not increase, but the soil will become more pliable in processing.
• The clay area cannot be dug deeper than 25 cm. The earth will not become looser from this. With increasing depth, the properties of clay become even more pronounced.
• A good result is the use of mulch in the beds. Straw, sawdust, leaves or needles are spread on the ground around garden plantations. Mulch prevents the rapid evaporation of moisture and the formation of a crust on clay soil. The thickness of the mulch depends on the material used and is a maximum of 5 cm. In autumn, it is dug up with the ground in the garden to obtain organic fertilizer.

Advice! Digging clayey soil is easier in dry weather. It is hard to work with wet clay, plus you get clods, which, after drying in the sun, are problematic to break.

Recently, gardeners have begun to adhere to an innovation that provides for partial improvement of the soil. A plot with clay soil is dug up and fertilized not all, but only the beds where garden crops are supposed to be planted.

If nothing worked

If the work to improve the clay soil was unsuccessful, do not abandon the site. Even on such land, useful crops can be grown:

• from flowers you can plant peonies, aconite, volzhanka;
• from garden crops, many varieties of strawberries, cabbage, salads, peas take root well;
• currants, plums, cherries, grapes grow from fruit crops on clay.

It all depends on the varieties of each crop. On clay, those plants and trees will grow that tolerate a lack of oxygen and high humidity.

Do not test plants for survival. The composition of any clay soil can be improved, you just need to invest maximum work and be patient.

Not every summer resident can boast of rich harvests. Indeed, in addition to regular care, it is important to plant plants in fertile and breathable soil. And to achieve such a state of the soil, you need to make a lot of effort. You will learn how to make the land in the countryside fertile and loose, from this material.

Composition check

Before choosing a way to make the earth loose and fertile, it is important to know the initial state of the soil. Of course, it is better to examine the soil in an agro-laboratory, where a complete analysis will be carried out. But, alas, for most summer residents, such testing is not available.

Do not be upset, because the mechanical composition of the soil, which is responsible for the amount of moisture and air in the soil, can be found out on your own. To do this, moisten the ground with water and try to roll a "sausage" out of it. Deciphering the results:

• If the "dough" is not kneaded and falls apart, then your soil is sandy, that is, too light.
• If you managed to make a "sausage", but it breaks, then you have a light loam - best type soil.
• If you rolled the "sausage" into a ring, then you have heavy clay soil.

It is enough for owners of light loams to fertilize the site to get a good harvest. The owners of sites with heavy clay soil will have to correct its composition, because in such soil the plants take root poorly and it is difficult for their roots to develop. But too light soil - sandy loam, has a bad effect on the crop. In such soil, moisture and minerals are quickly washed out, so crops require more care.

We change the mechanical composition of the soil

First, let's figure out how to make the earth loose if it is too clayey. In this case, river sand in the amount of 21 kg per square meter will help you. Approximately this is 1.5 buckets with a volume of 10 liters. Spread the sand evenly over the surface of the soil, then dig the area to a depth of 20–25 cm, or a full bayonet of a shovel. If you want to fix the sandy loam, then add clay to it. In addition, use black soil or humus for these purposes.

Even if you have corrected the mechanical composition of the soil, it has not become more fertile, because it is still necessary to add top dressing to the ground. You will learn how to do this below.

We fertilize with manure

Introducing animal waste into the soil - effective method how to make the land on the site fertile and loose. After all, such "products" contain a full range of vitamins and nutrients necessary for plant growth. Moreover, pig, horse or cow manure can be used as a fertilizer.

Remember that fresh manure is quite aggressive and dangerous for plants. Therefore, apply this product at least 6 months before planting. For example, in the fall after digging, but only on an empty plot. During this time, the aggressiveness of the manure will decrease, while all the nutrients will dissolve in the soil. In addition, the product will serve as an excellent baking powder.

If the manure is overripe, then it can be applied during spring planting. Fertilizer rate:

• Fresh horse - 5-6 kg, rotted - 2.5-3 kg per 1 sq. m landing.
• Fresh cow - 4-5 kg, rotted - 2-2.5 kg per 1 sq. m landing.

In no case do not make fresh pig manure even during autumn planting. Such a product contains a large amount of nitrogen in the ammonia form. Therefore, keep it for at least a year until it completely rots. Also, try to mix this fertilizer with cow or horse manure.

Humus

Applying fertilizer made from rotted manure and peat is the best way to make the land fertile and loose. Moreover, such a composition is suitable for continuous application and point application. And if you add nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers to it, you will significantly increase its effectiveness.

The main thing is to properly prepare the humus. To do this, put fresh manure and peat in layers in a compost bin in a ratio of 1 to 1. The thickness of each layer should reach 25–30 cm. To reduce the acidity of fertilizers, add phosphorite or lime flour to them. Moisturize the pile as needed without letting it dry out. Withstand humus from 6 months to 1 year.

How to fertilize the soil with a composition? Apply 20 kg of humus per 10 sq. m plot. Fertilize in clay soil to a depth of 15–20 cm. If you have sandy soil, then dig in the composition by 30 cm.

Mulching with cut grass

A similar method of how to make the earth fertile and soft is quite effective. Besides, it's safe. True, the effect of mulching the soil with grass comes a little later than from fertilizing with manure. But at the same time, the layer perfectly retains moisture in the soil, moreover, it makes the earth loose and soft and protects plants from pests and diseases.

How to mulch the surface? Spread the cut grass on the plot in a layer of 7-8 cm. At 20 square meters planting will require 1 standard bale of straw.

Owners of light loams and sandy loams can resort to such fertilizers at any time of the year. If you have heavy clay soil, then mulch the surface from the beginning of June. Otherwise, the soil will not warm up and will not dry out in early spring. Leave the cut grass until the next season, and after a few years the clay will gradually turn into loose and light loam.

Siderates - summer resident's assistants

If you are looking for a way to make the land fertile without manure, then pay attention to useful plants, such as:

• lupine;
• peas;
• alfalfa;
• legumes;
• oats.

The roots of these plants contain nodule bacteria that can draw and fix nitrogen from the air. Therefore, thanks to the sowing of green manure, the soil is naturally filled with nutritious and useful substances. In addition, crops have a powerful root system, which loosens the soil, making it more breathable. And this is very useful for peaty or clay soil.

Green manure

It is not necessary to buy expensive top dressings to make the soil fertile and light. After all, you can prepare an effective fertilizer yourself. Moreover, any plant material that you find on the site is suitable for its creation. And this is mowed grass, withered leaves and flowers, shoots left after pruning trees, and even weeded weeds. The main thing is that plant residues are not diseased, affected by pests or treated with herbicides.

How to prepare fertilizer:

1. Fill the barrel with chopped plant parts to 2/3 of the volume.
2. Fill the mass with water to the top and cover with a film. At the same time, make 2-3 holes in it for gas exchange.
3. Leave the fertilizer for 7-10 days, remembering to stir daily.

Strain the resulting solution and dilute with water in a ratio of 1 to 10. After that, water the beds. This fertilizer is good because it is instantly absorbed by plants, in addition, it reduces the acidity of the soil and protects the roots of crops from pests and diseases.

Influence the acidity of the soil

According to the reaction, the soil is alkaline, acidic and neutral. Moreover, the latter option is most preferable for plants. And worst of all, cultures take root on acidic soil. How to fix this situation? Add calcium to the soil:

• dolomite flour;
• slaked lime.

The amount of such fertilizers depends on the level of acidity. To find out, buy a special device that shows the pH level. With strong acidity (less than 3.5), add 300 g of the substance per 1 sq. m, medium (3.6-4.3) - 200 g, weak (4.4-4.9) - 100 g.

Now you know how to make the land on the plot soft, loose and fertile. Apply these simple rules and a good harvest is assured.

The development of a summer cottage, where nothing cultural has grown for a long time, is not a quick matter. How to make beds that will give a good harvest next year? The well-known gardener and gardener Nikolai Kurdyumov tells how to improve clay soil, sandy and how do-it-yourself beds differ from ordinary ones.

My friend in his youth lived in the famous village of Starocherkasskaya, the capital of the Don Cossacks. Don floodplain, meadow chernozems, two meters high, soft. And his garden was also on the site of the old regimental stables.

I remember he sincerely complained: well, it's a real torment to harvest! Potatoes in weeds - almost a bucket from a bush, beets - two pieces no longer fit into a bucket! Of course, to improve such soil is only to spoil it. It is enough for her to return as much organic matter as has grown on it. And digging it is a crime. But we have few such happy places. My friend is just lucky.

For us, simple clayey, in order to achieve good fertility, we need to work with the soil. And in order not to wait years, it is better to immediately improve the soil in the beds - the first and last time, but dramatically. Oh, how many times I regretted not doing it right away!

Soil improvement during site development: where to start

If your soil is heavy loam, then you need humus, sand, and, if possible, a fine screening of expanded clay. If it is poor sandy loam, clay and humus are needed. In both cases, a third of the new volume of the beds should be organic matter, which has rotted to varying degrees. And only a peat bog needs fresh nitrogenous organics: grass or hay, kitchen waste, unusable grain or spoiled feed. And also some clay and sand.

Renowned Austrian permaculturist and nature farmer Sepp Holzer uses his method to rapidly build up humus reserves in extremely poor soils and harsh climates. A trench 40–50 cm deep and of the same width is dug in place of the beds. It is clogged with dry trunks, branches, rotten. This is the primary supply of slow organics and a "sponge" for moisture during the drought.

Then the trench is dug in, and in the Sepp version, the earth is thrown from the sides, fitting into a shaft 70–100 cm high. The meaning of the shaft is a huge difference in microclimate. Sunny windward side - hot and dry. Sunny lee - hot and humid, subtropics. Shady without wind - humid and not hot, shady with wind - not hot, but it blows out moisture.

On the shady side, the plants will climb up the ridge. In the sun - they will bush and fly, like on the beach. Given all this, Sepp sows the shaft with a mixture of different plants - cereals, pumpkins and squash, beans, corn and sunflowers - everything that has large seeds and quickly increases biomass.

By the way, the area of ​​the slopes of the rampart is one and a half of the area of ​​its base.

The finished shaft is covered with straw or hay, strengthened from the wind with branches, and the branches with longitudinal poles. The great dignity of the shaft - early and fast heating of the soil. A trench formed between the ridges - branches were also placed in it and covered with straw. The roots will reach here too.

Sowing is done directly into the straw using a pointed peg. Seeds germinate after rains. All plant residues remain on the ridge. A year later, potatoes are planted here, and various rutabaga with turnips, and pumpkins with zucchini, and on top - a wall of corn.

Beautiful, deep, natural! But to be honest, this is for the most enthusiastic permaculture and personally Sepp owners of a hectare. For my garden, three acres is not an option. We are not accustomed to climbing steep ramparts and unraveling freely mixed bushes. We do not know the behavior of different plants so much. I won't take it from the air. So I'm leaning towards more conventional methods.

In my early books- "according to John Jevons". In fact, all smart gardeners and growers do this. But it just so happened: Jevons wrote a bestseller, I read it in the late 90s and was impressed.

John is an American organ farmer and hard worker, the inventor of "bio-intensive mini-agriculture" (BIMZ). The yields from his beds were many times larger than traditional ones - you must admit, this is impressive.

He began to invent on extremely bad, poor soil. Therefore, I improved it immediately, and then increased fertility not from scratch. The meaning is simple: you need to mix the soil with organic matter (and, if necessary, with sand or clay) to a depth of two bayonets of a shovel. Well, two bayonets - this is in hot California. One and a half (35-40 cm) is enough for us. And three or four spades wide.

Jevons suggests mixing the soil with the additives as you work your way up the bed: take off the top layer, mix the bottom with compost, put the top layer back on, mix it with the compost, move a little further... I keep it simple. Improving my clay bed with sand, I take out the most fertile top layer entirely and fold it from the edge. I mix additives into the bottom and return the top layer to its place, also mixing something.

The top, most organic layer is taken out, it is on the left. The bottom is mixed with sand. The top layer is returned in the same way with sand. This is the only way I have been able to drastically reduce the density of my clay soil. The comfort zone for the roots has almost doubled in depth. It remains to re-structure the soil - this will be done by worms and roots.

So let's take the best of both worlds. We take out the top 10–15 cm of the most fertile soil. We deepen the bottom with a trench deep into the bayonet of a shovel. In the trench - logs and thick branches, but not thick, so that the capillary connection with the subsoil is quickly restored.

It is harmless to lightly powder this windbreak with some kind of nitrogen fertilizer, moisten it with dung mash or the contents of a dry closet - it will rot faster. It is useful to throw in some fresh weeds - the same nitrogen. In the dry south it is exceptionally harmless to pour hydrogel, circles per square meter.

We return down the subsoil from the trench, pushing it between the pieces of wood. We scatter the excess subsoil in the aisles or take it away. At the bottom we put one or two strips of immature compost or grass, flavored with EM, "Shine" or another bioactivator. Then we fill the bed with the top layer taken out, interspersed with additives (sand / clay) and humus.

It turns out a raised bed - a convex gentle shaft. The bulge adds a lot of space and light to the plants, and in the spring it better receives the sun's rays. For the damp Non-Black Earth Region and - an ideal option for do-it-yourself beds. In the steppe zone, you need and.

In the photo - beds-ridges on the site of Irina Kalmykova on Taman. They warm up much earlier and better. Here, in a very dry area, they are covered with a special mulch film, under which drip tapes lie.

The result of our sweating: the bed is ready to immediately give a decent harvest. The difference is visible in the first year. Look at the photo. Three cucumber bushes on the right are on improved soil, two on the left are on normal soil. Garden L. Lobanov, Ivanovo.

In the next photo, the soil on the right is also improved. Filling with organics and bioactivator at the same time added warmth to the soil. Eggplant yield is 9 times more than from the left control bush. Experience of A. Bushikhin, Yaroslavl.

Already a lot! But this is only the beginning. The soil is not yet inhabited by living creatures, not structured, not pierced by roots, not sown with coprolites of worms and other poop. Now we will improve it every year with natural forces: plants, worms, microbes and fungi. But it is already easy. Our main business is feed the soil workers and all kinds of organic matter. Another important work don't disturb them. The rest they will do themselves. And I assure you - they will make it as wonderful as you never dreamed of.

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Happy owners suburban acres they know well that it is impossible to get rich land on a plot without effort. For this you need to work hard. But before proceeding with the transformation, it is important to determine its initial state. It depends on what additives and in what quantity to apply. How to make the soil loose and fertile will be discussed in our article.

How to make the soil loose and fertile

Ideally, if the natural land from the site can be taken to an agro-laboratory, where a complete analysis will be done. Its results will show exactly how to optimize the soil in the country. Unfortunately, for most owners, such testing is not available. No problem! Some characteristics can be determined independently, for example, mechanical composition. It is responsible for the content of air and moisture. You can recognize it yourself if you moisten a small amount of earth with water and make a ball out of it. As a result:

• the figurine crumbles - it means that the soil is sandy;
• the ball can be rolled into a cord and form a ring - the soil is considered clayey.

In the first case, additives are needed to retain moisture. You can loosen heavy soil with coarse sand or grassroots peat. For any type of land, nutritious top dressings will be needed, the best are organic fertilizers.

manure fertilizer

Animal waste products contain a full range of substances necessary for plants. That is why the application of organic fertilizers makes the soil fertile. Any type of manure is brought under garden and horticultural crops - cow, pig or horse. Attention! It is important to follow these rules:

1. Fresh fertilizers can only be applied in autumn to empty areas, where there are no plantings, for example, in a garden. Manure in this form is an aggressive substance that is dangerous for plants. Therefore, it must be added to the soil in advance, 5-6 months before planting. During this time, it will be converted to a safe state, and nutrients will become available to plants. The additive not only serves as top dressing, but also acts as a baking powder for the garden soil.
2. Overripe fertilizers can be applied in the spring, during planting.

• horse - 5-6 kg;
• cow - 4-5 kg.

The amount of rotted manure is halved. Pig manure is not recommended to be applied fresh even in autumn due to the high content of aggressive nitrogen in the ammonia form. Fertilizer must be kept for at least a year before complete decay. It is better to mix with horse or cow or lay in compost.

Mulching with cut grass

Can be applied with early spring until late autumn. This type of soil fertilization is referred to as MDU - slow-acting fertilizers. The use of mulch allows you to:

1. Make the earth loose and soft in the garden and in the garden.
2. Retain moisture by reducing evaporation.
3. Provide constant top dressing, thanks to the gradual decomposition of the mulch.

Mowed grass is an effective leavening agent for heavy clay soils.

Planting plants with long roots

Proponents of organic farming recommend improving soil quality with green manure. Sow plants that have nodule bacteria on their roots that capture and bind nitrogen from the air. Thus, a natural environmentally friendly fertilizer is obtained. Thanks to a powerful root system, siderats make the soil crumbly, aerate it. This is especially important for heavy or peaty soils. To improve the structure and fertility of the soil, leguminous plants are most often used, for example, lupine, peas, alfalfa, vetch or beans. Even if your site has fertile soil, it needs to be improved periodically. To make the chernozem loose, it is also sown with green manure. This is more environmentally friendly than adding bulk additives and digging.

Green manure

Soil improvement is not a one-time event. You need to maintain optimal condition regularly. For this, it is not necessary to purchase expensive top dressing. You can use the plant material that is on each site:

• mowed lawn grass;
• weed weeds;
• sheared shoots;
• withered flowers, etc.

In fact, this is garden waste, but you can make effective fertilizer from it. Experienced gardeners offer helpful tips for the preparation of green dressings. Here is one of them:

• a large volume container, for example, a barrel, is filled with crushed plant residues by two-thirds;
• fill with water to the top;
• insist a week and a half, stirring daily.

Before feeding, the resulting concentrated solution is filtered and diluted in a ratio of 1:10.

other methods

To improve the structure of heavy soil, it is easiest to use coarse-grained washed river sand. To make light soil from medium loam, you need 21 kg / m 2. This is about one and a half buckets with a volume of 10 liters. The sand is evenly distributed over the surface and dug up to a depth of 20–25 cm, to a full shovel bayonet. When preparing a plant mixture for seedlings, sand is almost always used. It is mixed with peat and compost to form a light nutrient substrate. Fertilizers that contain calcium are good baking powder:

• slaked lime;
• dolomite flour;
• ash.

They are applied to acidic soils to neutralize the pH level. Sometimes soil optimization on the site is a long and costly process. It is easier to take fertile land from manufacturers who mix all the necessary components in advance.

Improve the soil on the site yourself or add the finished mixture, everyone decides for himself. It depends on your financial capabilities and scope of work.

Ecology of consumption. Homestead: Fertile soil is so easy to make that it's hard to believe, so we're still looking for magic fertilizer...

Now for most people, fertile soil is a utopia. A purely consumer approach to growing plants destroys the fertile soil layer. Most agronomists think that fertile soil is soil of a certain chemical composition. Such an idea is fundamentally wrong, and it is precisely this that leads to the destruction of the soil.

Everyone knows that the fertile layer near the soil is relatively small, and is located on the surface of the earth. If you dig a two-meter hole in the ground, you can see with the naked eye that there is no fertile soil at its bottom, although if we assume that soil fertility is determined by its chemical composition, then at such a depth, on the contrary, it should be more fertile, because. plants don't get there.

Also, everyone knows that for the normal development of plants, the soil in which they grow must be loose. Here, AGRONOMS AGAIN TAKE US IN THE WRONG and said that for this we need to dig it up regularly. Digging up the soil, we first make earth out of it, then sand and, finally, dust. And then we breathe it all in.

Another mistake is how do we plant plants. Different plants consume and produce different micronutrients. If mixed in the garden grow different plants, then they work for each other and practically do not require maintenance. And if the entire garden is filled with plants of the same species, then they begin to fight among themselves for a place under the sun. As a result, we get diseased plants from a lack of trace elements. We are trying to cure them with chemistry, again on the advice of agronomists, and we enter into a vicious circle.

So, should we all go beat the agronomists for giving us false information? You can of course go, but it will not solve the problem. A more reasonable action is to figure out for yourself what determines the fertility of the soil. It's worth it - if we manage to copy the behavior of Nature- because now only she makes the soil fertile, then you will no longer need to bend your back in the garden - everything will grow there by itself. Tempting? Move on.

FERTILITY SOIL IS A LIVING ORGANISM and not just a collection of chemical elements. The fact that it contains many trace elements is side effect her "life". In order to increase the fertility of the soil, it is necessary to increase its "vitality", and the necessary microelements come to the living soil themselves. Can't believe it? There is no mysticism here, but there is only exact laws Nature.

Firstly, fertile soil is not earth. The earth is an integral part of it, but it is only a frame on which a fertile layer is formed.

Let's figure it out first, how to loosen soil. It's simple - you need to plant annual plants with long roots in it several times in a row. When their long roots die, there will be passages due to which the soil will be loose.

Now let's figure it out where to get trace elements that plants need. There are no problems here either. you just need not to leave the beds bare under the scorching sun. Partially weed out the weeds, and partially left, and throw the weeded weeds right here in the garden. Plus, plant plants mixed with each other, and not in separate beds.

The last problem is where to get water. You might be surprised, but there is no problem here either. You just need to overlay the seedlings of our plants with a fifteen-centimeter layer of straw, foliage or needles. This layer is called MULCH.

Most people who use mulch think that it only retains moisture. In fact, it also produces moisture. At the top and bottom of the mulch, the air temperature is different, due to this difference, dew falls on the mulch, which is so necessary for plants.

Dew falls not only in the mulch, but also in the passages left by the roots of old plants, i.e. Annual plants with long roots have a double benefit.

That's the whole technique of soil fertility. As you can see, THERE IS NOTHING COMPLICATED HERE. Fertile soil is so easy to make that it is very hard to believe in this simplicity, so we are still looking for a magical fertilizer that will make our soil fertile. But the truth is that there is no such fertilizer and cannot be. published