If you know anything about landscaping or gardening, you know that the quality of your soil has a huge impact on how well your plants grow. There are several components that makeup soil, and making sure you find the right balance of these is essential if you want to improve the quality of your soil. Cal Blend Soils Inc. has been providing quality landscaping and gardening products to our clients for years. We know how to improve soil and provide you with the tools you need for a healthy garden. Keep reading on to learn about ten tips that will directly help you improve the quality of your garden soil.

1. Start Using Compost

Compost is a great way to use organic matter in a way that provides your plants and garden with lots of important nutrients. Compost includes things like dead leaves, grass, and food scraps and can completely transform your garden into an oasis of fertility. Adding compost to your garden or your landscaping can help the plants grow longer and stronger roots. This means your plants will be healthier and happier in your garden. Your plants can also reach their full potential thanks to the nutrient-rich qualities of compost. Compost also typically contains microorganisms that can promote plant life and help you achieve amazing gardening results.

2. Start Planting Cover Crops

A cover crop is a layer of plants that you can start planting right after the summer or the fall gardening season ends. It typically includes plants like legumes and grasses that will be tilled over until the spring. The idea behind cover crops is to provide more water penetration and better air for future crops. It will help to reduce the compaction of your soil and help you avoid erosion while you are waiting for your prime gardening seasons to begin. Cover crops are awesome because when spring rolls around and you till your cover crop, it will be converted into compost that goes directly into your soil. It’s a clever and crafty way to make sure your soil is always ready for the next gardening season.

3. Perform Soils Tests Frequently

If you don’t know what your soil is made up of, you will never be able to make the necessary adjustments or know which soil additives to buy. Without testing your soil frequently, you will probably never achieve the gardening success you are looking for. There are typically three main things you want to know after a soil test. You need to figure out what the pH level in your soil is, how are the phosphate levels, and what are the magnesium and potassium levels. After you test your soil, you should also determine whether or not it has the right levels for the plants or vegetables you are looking to grow. If not, you can always purchase topsoil or soil additives from Cal Blend Soils Inc to get your soil to the ideal levels you are looking for.

4. Feel Out Your Soil

As we mentioned before, improving the quality of your garden soil can be an ongoing process. One way to check out your soil is to physically feel it in your hands. There are typically three types of soil, coarse, medium, or fine. Coarse soil will tend to have lots of rocks and other clumps in it, while fine will be almost sandy in texture. You are looking for medium soil to really make a difference and allow you to make real progress with your garden or landscaping. Soil typically consists of three things, silt, sand, and clay. When these three elements are all in your soil at the right ratios, you can rest assured that your plants will be receiving the nutrients they need. The combination of all three of these things is known in the gardening world as loam. The best gardeners are able to feel out their soil in their bare hands to know whether or not it is healthy. Try it out yourself and purchase gardening products if needed to help your soil reach loam.

5. Try to Avoid Compacting Your Soil

Compacted soil is bad for plants because it doesn’t allow their roots to grow out to their full potential. It also doesn’t provide an environment that’s conducive to microorganism like earthworms. These tiny microorganisms are essential for gardening success. To avoid having your soil compacted, it’s important to create walkable pathways near your garden. That’s because impacts at the surface level are one of the biggest causes for compacted soil. Creating permanent walk spaces by using gravel and other materials is a great way to avoid this problem and ensure that your soil is not compacted. You can purchase landscaping products from Cal Blend Soils Inc. that can help you with this issue.

6. Mulch Up

Another way to improve the quality of your garden soil is to use mulch. Mulch comes in a variety of different types, which means finding the right type for your garden might be challenging. You can always reach out to the experts at Cal Blend Soils Inc. for help. The idea with mulch is that it helps prevent weeds in your garden and also promotes microorganisms. Mulch can also be used to create the pathways we mentioned above. Mulch also can protect the soil against extreme temperatures as well as help it to retain moisture. The benefits of mulch certainly make it worth investigating. You can purchase high-quality mulch from Cal Blend Soils Inc. and try it out in your own landscaping today.

These six tips are all great for improving the quality of your garden soil and taking your landscaping efforts to the next level. There’s nothing more frustrating than working hard on your garden only to receive poor results or deal with flowers and plants that simply aren’t growing. Keeping track of your garden soil is always an important step towards landscaping success, and we hope the six tips mentioned above will help you do so!