|
Composting
| |
HeartGarden is a new mail list devoted to using gardens for exercise and growing crops
for heart-healty diets. Most of the members have heart problems or relatives that do.
Anyone may join by clicking on HeartGarden-subscribe@onelist.com
then sending the message.
Square foot gardening
Mulching is good for keeping the soil moisture in and the weeds down. Some good
mulch materials are grass clippings, leaves, newspaper, and wood chips.
Soil Types
 | Clay - The soil is heavy and packs tightly. Clay sticks to your shoes and shovel
when wet, and cracks when dry. It is slow to absorb moisture and release it.
This can make clay fertile. Gardening for Dummies. p. 170 |
| Sand - Water and nutrients quickly pass through the soil. Gardening for Dummies. p170 |
Tests for soil types
| Ball and Ribbon Test - Take a handful of moist soil and squese it into a ball.
Then press it into a ribbon between your thumb and fore finger. Stand the
ribbon up in the air. Gardening
for Dummies, p. 171
 | If you cannot form a ribbon, then the soil is more than 50% sand with very little clay. |
| If the ribbon breaks off less than 2.5 inches long, then the soil has about 25% clay. |
| If the ribbon breaks off between 2.5 and 3.5 inches long, then the soil is around 40%
clay. |
| If the ribbon is longer than 3.5 inches and does not break, then the soil contains at
least 50% clay. |
|
| Jar Test - . Gardening for
Dummies, p. 172 |
| |
|
