{"id":964,"date":"2014-04-08T06:35:49","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T13:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highergroundgardens.com\/?p=964"},"modified":"2014-04-08T06:35:49","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T13:35:49","slug":"using-natural-organic-matter-to-improve-soil-fertility-in-your-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highergroundgardens.com\/using-natural-organic-matter-to-improve-soil-fertility-in-your-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Using natural organic matter to improve soil fertility in your garden."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Improving soil fertility is as easy as adding natural organic matter to your yard. The benefits include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Improving soil structure, allowing soil to hold air and moisture in pockets<\/li>\n<li>Allowing roots to grow easily through the ground<\/li>\n<li>Providing nutrients for insects (worms) and micro-organisms (bacteria, fungi) that contribute to plant health<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Your garden\u2019s soil fertility will be able to be maintained simply by adding natural organic matter regularly, about every one or two years.<\/p>\n<p>What types of organic matter can increase your soil fertility?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Recycled Green Waste<\/li>\n<li>Composted Manure<\/li>\n<li>Leaf Mould<\/li>\n<li>Nutrient Crops<\/li>\n<li>Bark Mulch<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Below is a description of each type of natural organic matter. Choose the one that best suits the space in your garden and the time you have.<\/p>\n<p><b>Recycled green waste from the kitchen or garden<\/b><\/p>\n<p>What we are talking about is making your own compost. The main challenge with this method of improving soil fertility is that there is an excess of kitchen material compared to garden material in many small space gardens. One solution is to break down kitchen waste before adding it to the compost pile.<\/p>\n<p><b>Worm composting<\/b> can quickly break down kitchen waste. Provide your worms with bedding made of shredded newspaper or leaf mould inside a container. Feed them with waste, though keep in mind that they do not break down weed seeds or diseased material like a hot compost pile would.\u00a0 Keep your bin in the shade during summer months. Insulate the bin in winter. When you are ready to apply some natural organic matter to your garden using your worm compost, be sure to use the soil from the bottom of the bin. Leave the top layer with the new kitchen waste as this is where the most worms are and dig out the soil below this valuable layer.<\/p>\n<p><b>Compost pile, compost heap or compost bins<\/b>.\u00a0 In the compost bin kitchen and garden waste is broken down by bacteria and fungi. Provide a variety of waste by including leaves, chopped branches, kitchen scraps and grass clippings all together. Grass clippings activate the composting process because of their high nitrogen content. It\u2019s important to have a big enough pile to generate enough heat to kill weed seeds and diseases. A great size for a compost bin is 3 feet by 3 feet.<\/p>\n<p><b>Manure<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Manure can be added to the compost bin, or left in a pile on its own to break down. Manure works well in combination in the garden with the natural organic matter that a worm compost bin produces. \u00a0Manure is best when composted for a year or from spring through fall before being added to garden beds.<\/p>\n<p><b>Leaves<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Leaves can be added to the compost, or left in plastic bags to rot. This creates leaf mould. Although leaves do not add many nutrients in your quest for soil fertility, they do add essential structural elements to the garden\u2019s soil.<\/p>\n<p><b>Nutrient Crops<\/b><\/p>\n<p>If you are growing vegetables or leave patches of soil bare through the winter months, growing your own nutrient crops will help to prevent the leaching of nutrients from the soil. Heavy rainfall and precipitation during the winter months strips the soil of available nutrients, leaving soil fertility lower in spring than it was in the fall. Some crops, such as mustard, buckwheat or fenugreek can be grown as quick cover crops between your fall harvest and spring seeding. Choose cover crops that grow quickly in a five to six week period for best effect.<\/p>\n<p><b>Bark Mulch<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Bark mulch is made up of partially decomposed, shredded bark and compost made from recycled green waste. It is a by-product of the lumber industry and greatly beneficial to garden beds. It acts as a natural organic matter by gradually breaking down into rich soil.\u00a0 This is a great source of organic matter that also protects your plants, prevents water evaporation from the soil and prevents weed seeds from establishing themselves in garden beds.<\/p>\n<p>Any parts of the garden that have been growing plants continually will benefit greatly from the addition of natural organic matter. Shovel in composted materials before planting and use mulch covers to increase plant health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Improving soil fertility is as easy as adding natural organic matter to your yard. The benefits include: Improving soil structure, allowing soil to hold air and moisture in pockets Allowing roots to grow easily through the ground Providing nutrients for insects (worms) and micro-organisms (bacteria, fungi) that contribute to plant health Your garden\u2019s soil fertility [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Using natural organic matter to improve soil fertility in your garden. - Higher Ground Gardens<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/highergroundgardens.com\/using-natural-organic-matter-to-improve-soil-fertility-in-your-garden\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Using natural organic matter to improve soil fertility in your garden. - Higher Ground Gardens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Improving soil fertility is as easy as adding natural organic matter to your yard. The benefits include: Improving soil structure, allowing soil to hold air and moisture in pockets Allowing roots to grow easily through the ground Providing nutrients for insects (worms) and micro-organisms (bacteria, fungi) that contribute to plant health Your garden\u2019s soil fertility [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/highergroundgardens.com\/using-natural-organic-matter-to-improve-soil-fertility-in-your-garden\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Higher Ground Gardens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/highergroundgardens\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-08T13:35:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jessica Salvador\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jessica Salvador\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/highergroundgardens.com\/using-natural-organic-matter-to-improve-soil-fertility-in-your-garden\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/highergroundgardens.com\/using-natural-organic-matter-to-improve-soil-fertility-in-your-garden\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jessica Salvador\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/highergroundgardens.com\/#\/schema\/person\/99b69481eba931eb6d1c514bd3f91ea0\"},\"headline\":\"Using natural organic matter to improve soil fertility in your garden.\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-08T13:35:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-08T13:35:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/highergroundgardens.com\/using-natural-organic-matter-to-improve-soil-fertility-in-your-garden\/\"},\"wordCount\":702,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/highergroundgardens.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Gardening Vancouver\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/highergroundgardens.com\/using-natural-organic-matter-to-improve-soil-fertility-in-your-garden\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/highergroundgardens.com\/using-natural-organic-matter-to-improve-soil-fertility-in-your-garden\/\",\"name\":\"Using natural organic matter to improve soil fertility in your garden. - 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