Gardening for Health

Show Your Soil Some Love

By Maria Price

As you get ready to plant your vegetable or flower gardens this spring, make sure your soil is friable and loose to allow easy planting.

The Bay Gardener, the late Dr. Frank Gouin, advised the deep rooting of plants by subsoiling or double digging. I agree with him and like to initially turn the soil over for at least a depth of 12 inches. Then I incorporate compost like Leafgro into the soil. If you repeatedly rototill or spade the soil to the same depth year after year, you can create a hardpan at a depth of 4 to 6 inches. This hardpan will prevent water from draining and creates poor drainage conditions, preventing plant roots from penetrating deeper where there is more water.

Amending the soil with compost and digging deeper into the subsoil helps to stop the formation of hardpan. The organic matter migrates into the subsoil and reduces the bulk density of the soil. Compost and other organic matter like chopped leaves help the capillary and gravitational movement of water in soils. This is something that fertilizers cannot do.

Subsoiling and adding compost to the soil encourages deep rooting and makes plants more resistant to drought. Light sandy soils and heavy clay soils both benefit from the addition of compost. When you improve your soil, you’ll have more successful plant growth. Your transplants and young seedlings will establish more rapidly and they will become more drought resistant.

It’s great to get the planting bug early, but don’t purchase tender plants too soon. Hardy annuals, perennials and cool weather vegetables can be planted now. Pansies, violas, English daisies, stock, bachelor buttons and snapdragons can safely be planted now. Hardy perennials such as creeping phlox, woodland phlox, Virginia bluebells, bleeding hearts and a host of other perennials can also be planted now.

Hardy herbs you can plant now include parsley, cilantro, dill, lavender, thyme and mints. But herbs such as basil should wait until after our last frost, anywhere from the end of April to mid-May.

Cool season vegetables such as lettuce and the brassica family, which includes kale, collards, cabbage, turnips, cauliflower and broccoli, can all be planted now. Don’t be tempted to plant tomatoes and peppers unless you have special coverings to insulate them. If you do buy some, make sure to keep them indoors in a warm, sunny window.