MowingAround.com Blog

There was a time in the distant past that I would roll up onto a landscape client’s property, see that the grass and plants were not doing that well, talk with a local gardening supplier, garden center, and try to figure out what the heck was going on.  I would usually be told the plant was in need of fertilizing or I needed a soil sample to zero in on what was going on.  Since that time I have come a long way in my understanding of plants, their environment, what they require, what they don’t require, and how to go about providing that.  I am not a fan of obtaining a soil sample and having it analyzed by a lab.  I have had many a discussion with some very intelligent  landscape professionals who disagree with my suggestion to forego the soil analysis.  Why then do I continue to recommend against having the soil of a property analyzed.  For one, you can take 4 different samples from different locations from a property and the same lab is going to give you 4 different results.  Now if you were to send that to 4 different labs, well good luck finding any common ground.  Add to that the change the soil undergoes while in transit, the change the soil undergoes from a cold day to a warm day, wet day to a dry day! The test may come back and tell you what your soil was lacking at the time the test was taken, two weeks prior!  But what about today, after it has rained for four days, followed by unusually hot or cold weather.  I just don’t think an analysis is worth the cash you outlay because of the constant changing of soil.  I do like the way that soil is analyzed by the Soil Food Web laboratories (ie. they check to see what organisms are present in the soil) and I wish they had a lab closer to Victoria, B.C. but would I obtain more soil samples? Probably only for turf because it is a monoculture not seen before European settlers and completely unnatural and a difficult one to keep weed free without chemicals. .  When it comes to flower beds, I believe the first step to health is the proper ratio of sand, silt and clay.  One can complete a rudimentary soil texture test to tell you if you have a decent balance of sand, silt and clay (and to also give you an indication of organic matter in the soil) and with these results,changes to the ratio can be made.  The next step?  Add organic matter to the soil.  Create a litter layer.  Mulch, mulch , mulch.  Give the organisms in the soil something to eat and that food is the mulch.  These organisms are so crucial to the longterm health of the soil and everything that feeds off of that soil.  Kill the organisms and you are left with chemically dependant landscapes and constant manual intervention to ensure this chemical landscape keeps working.  How to go about completing a soil texture test?  Take a glass jar with lid, something a little larger like a pickle jar.  Go to your flower bed or lawn, remove the top sod or litter layer and obtain some soil.  Fill the jar half way with soil, add some dishwashing soap and fill the jar with water.  Put the lid on, shake vigorously for a few minutes and then let the jar sit until it all settles and that can take some time.  Once settled, you will have a clear indication of the layers of sand, silt and clay.  The sand settles within one minute at the bottom, silt is next taking a good hour or more, then clay which can take a day or two to completely settle.  You then measure each layer as a percentage of the whole and with that information you review a soil texture pyramid that I have added to the top of this blog.  So in short, test the soil with this simple test, make the changes in the ratio at the outset, add mulch (organic matter) but don’t use bark mulch, and let water well.   The mulch will continue to break down and continue to feed the plants.  Let nature do the work now!