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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Give your soil a fighting chance

Terry and Charlie Klement inspect a native plant border on their West Plains property. Special to the Spokesman-Review (SUSAN MULVIHILLSpecial to the Spokesman-Review)

No matter what you plan to grow in your garden this year, it is absolutely essential that you build up the soil before planting.

I harped on this last year and intend to harp on it again. It is easy to take soil for granted but it is the very foundation upon which your plants depend.

Terry Klement knows this all too well. She and her husband Charlie bought property on the West Plains back in 1991. It was covered with trees, native plants and alfalfa.

When the county needed to reroute an adjacent road, the trees and many native plants were removed and the heavy equipment compacted the soil.

“We had to start from scratch,” Terry Klement said. “With the trees gone, our property essentially went from being a forest to a desert.

“I didn’t know anything about using compost. I put down some bark around the plants but couldn’t understand why things weren’t growing.”

She joined a garden club and talked to a lot of gardeners with the hope of solving the mystery.

“I thought dirt was dirt but everyone I talked to said the soil is so important,” she said. “On our property, we had sandy soil and no nutrients.”

The Klements initially had a few dump trucks of compost delivered, then graduated to semi-truckloads of compost.

“We just kept putting it on the soil, raking it in and digging it in around the plants,” Terry Klement said. “Everything started growing and filling out.”

“Before we put on the compost,” Charlie Klement added, “our plants wouldn’t grow a bit. Once we added compost to the soil, it was like we turned on the growth switch.”

The Klements’ experience underscores the need for building up the soil in our gardens every year. Plants deplete the soil of nutrients and strong winds can blow away dry topsoil.

Healthy soil contains small particles of rock, microbes, air, water and organic matter that earthworms break down. If we add organic materials to the soil every year, it will absorb water more easily and provide nutrients to help plants thrive.

If you don’t have your own compost pile, you can purchase compost, peat moss and composted steer manure at local garden centers. Other organic amendments include shredded leaves, straw that doesn’t contain weed seeds, and grass clippings from lawns that haven’t been treated with herbicides.

In addition to feeding the plants, adding organic matter to sandy soil will help it retain moisture. Adding organic matter to clay soil will give it structure so water can easily move through it.

Soil amendments should be added to the soil at least a couple of weeks before planting. Keep in mind that vegetable crops like corn, tomatoes, beans and squash are particularly heavy feeders.

Before you start working with the soil, make sure it is dry enough first. Working with wet soil will harm the soil structure which will make a big difference in the way moisture is absorbed and made available to the plants.

The easiest way to determine if your soil is ready to be worked is to grab a handful and squeeze it into a ball. If it’s wet and leaves you with a muddy residue, it’s too early. But if you poke a finger into the ball of soil and it easily breaks apart, it is ready.

If you do a good job of building up and preparing your soil prior to planting, your garden will be fertile and you will be a successful gardener. It is as simple as that.

Susan Mulvihill can be reached via e-mail at inthegarden@live.com.