Plants Beat Steel When It Comes To Reducing Soil Compaction

Organic gardening is all about gardening in as natural a way as possible, without the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilisers. As well as feeding your plants with liquid fertilisers, you feed the soil by mulching with home-made compost, manure and other organic matter to increase soil fertility. Instead of spraying pests you look for alternative ways to manage them, for example by growing companion plants to confuse them and attract their predators, or by using a jet of water to blast them o

  You’ve found the proper site for your garden or containers, nurtured your young starts, and planted them in well-prepared, nutrient rich soil. Now all that’s left to do is water, watch, and wai

Editors Note: This comes to us from Dennis O’Brien and the Agriculture Research Service. It was orignally published in the February 2015 issue Agricultural Research magazine. For years, some growers in the Southeast have used cover crops to reduce soil erosion, boost organic matter, and keep more moisture in soil. Combined with no-till production, cover crops are credited with sequestering more carbon in soil so that less of it is released as a greenhouse gas. But more growers could be us

Composting can be a rewarding experience. You get to recycle your kitchen scraps. You have the satisfaction of creating soil for your plants or yard or garden. Organic material is so good for your plants. Compost gives your plants an extra boost of nutrients. But sometimes, too much of anything might cause damage. Weve learned that there are pros and cons to using compost. We got to wondering about the cons. Can compost kill plants? The slow release of nutrients from compost helps grow healthy