Go underground to enrich your garden
Just stand or sit quietly in your garden for a moment. You can see the changes taking place as the days shorten and Earth tilts yet a bit more. Most plants take this as a signal to “go within,” turning off the overhead canopy that served to gather sunlight and create food. Plants are shedding those shriveled leaves and readying themselves for a short winter nap.
Though it looks like plants above ground are fading, the soil beneath your feet is alive. It’s teeming with microorganisms. It is not just sand or clay. Soil is full of decaying matter, fungus and bacteria. It’s an amazing web of microorganisms that feed on each other — creepy and fascinating at the same time.
Nourish the soil
While you wait for the rains to come, consider how you can nourish the soil this season. When soil is really good, it is a comfortable place for roots to be. Roots like to wander. They like to develop relationships with other types of living creatures, like fungi, and they like to have natural food available, not just an occasional squirt of “liquid junk food.”
Most soil in Cambria lacks organic matter. This is fine for the native plants and grasses that occur in natural landscapes. They’ve adapted to a “skinny” diet. But in our gardens, we are creating a pallet of colors, textures and, in some cases, food for the table.
Organic matter
Building better soil is mostly a matter of adding organic amendments. Above-average levels of organic matter are one key to developing soil that functions well as a nutrient storehouse and is a root-friendly place to be.
This fall, mulch more and dig less. Dig only when you’re planting or transplanting plants to a new area. Alas, digging disturbs beneficial fungi that help plants take up phosphorus and nitrogen. Remove annual weeds and plants by using a Hula Hoe, leaving roots in the ground to decay.
First on your garden agenda this fall should be mulching. Layer your earth with commercial mulch or wood chips. Leave digging until spring. That should make fall gardening more fun and let the fungi in the soil do its thing.
Lee Oliphant’s column is special to The Cambrian. She shares her garden and chickens online at centralcoastgardening.com and backyardhen.com. Email her with gardening questions at cambria gardener@charter.net.
Tip of the month
Did everyone in town get one of those plastic garbage containers for recycling kitchen waste, whether you asked for it or not?
Now, just so you know, I’m dedicated to composting my kitchen scraps. I have two compost bins in the garden and two worm bins cooking at all times. I have chickens that love kitchen scraps. They make beautiful poop with it. So, yes, I’ll put the bucket to use. But, I know, some of you are not so organically inclined. In your cases, those buckets may end up in the landfill.
That said, if you are lukewarm about composting, this bucket might get you started. Use the container to collect all vegetable peelings, greens, old fruit — like bananas, leftover cooked vegetables and plate scrapings (no meat or fats) — and take it to your green recycling bin to help the garbage company make better compost, which, by the way, you’ll have to buy to put back into your soil. Or … use the scrapes in your own compost pile. What a great concept!
This story was originally published September 14, 2016 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Go underground to enrich your garden."