Hearty Soils

When working with plants and soil, it is vital to understand soil type, structure and fertility.

The above elements will make all the difference to the feeds and care your lawn or wildflowers may need.

Like most things plants including grass perform and grow much better when grown in their natural or correct environment, therefore it is vital that you as a grower work on your own knowledge of plants and soils.

In previous articles we talk about water and feed controls, these are very important but are all dependant on soil type and structure. What this means is, if the soil type or structure is not correct then your plants will show stress and lack of vigorous growth, and your feeds will not be fully utilised by the plant that needs it. This is as likely with a potato plant as a golf green or even a tennis court at ATL (Wimbledon).

All of the above means we should be trying our best to learn about how our plants or lawns will grow.

In the professional sports turf world we look at, soil ph, P (phos), K (potash) and N (nitrogen), extra elements Mg (magnesium) and Ca (calcium) are also vital to plant and soil health.

When cutting grass for example, you are removing a lot of K (potash) with ever cut, so therefore it is vital to replace what is being taken or lost. This could be using plant feeds bought from your local garden centre, these could be organic or inorganic.

As we know, plants get lots of energy and growth from the sunshine, if we understand what our plants need (water, feed, air, fertility) then we will have healthy plants which are then able to capture and utilise this energy from the sunshine.

So in summary, take time to plan your project and make the best of your investment.