Tuesday’s Tips — Soil Testing

Mary Beth and I decided to have our soil tested a few weeks ago. We were curious to know if all the work we've been putting into improving the soil over the past few years would show up in the test results. The bottom line is: of course the addition of all those organic amendments,...

Tuesday’s Tips – Creating Fertile Soil

In Thursday's Garden Journal we wrote about using amendments to improve soil structure. Today's post is about adding amendments to improve fertility. As always we are recommending only organic amendments, which for our purposes are those that are derived from living organisms or that are naturally occurring. Let's start with one very important concept that should...

Garden Journal – How to Improve Your Soil

Tuesday we talked about when you can start working your soil. (Click here for more on that topic.) Today we're going to talk about the different types of soils and the kinds of amendments you can use to improve soil structure. In our next post we'll finish up the topic by telling you what amendments...

Tuesday’s Tips — Spring Gardening. When Can I Start?

Most of us are SO over winter at this point and all we want to do is get our hands and feet in the dirt again. But hang on a minute! Even though we're ready to get going, our gardens may not be. Working the soil now could actually harm it and create a difficult growing...

Tuesday’s Tips — Where to find soil and other essentials.

Note: This week's tips are aimed at our home communities of central Orange County, CA and Durango, CO, though if you are in another location you might glean some ideas about where to look in your own area. The UCCE Orange County Master Gardeners have a great hotline (714-708-1646 or hotline@uccemg.com) that's available to OC residents...