Bring Your Lawn and Garden Into Balance: How to Measure and Correct Soil pH

Since the Neolithic Revolution, which occurred 10,000 years ago or so, human beings have been struggling to help plants grow. Sometimes, this has led to a bountiful harvest. Other times, there has been terrible drought. Even with 10,000 years of experience under our belt, humanity has had a difficult time in farming and gardening. This is largely because there are so many factors interacting at the same time.

Plants require water, sunlight and food – typically in the form of nitrogen. But they require these three elements in precisely balanced quantities, usually formulated by the plant’s evolutionary history in a given environment. Plants from tropical rainforests, for example, will require daily watering, while a cactus may not. We’re all basically familiar with those concepts of ample water and ample sunlight.

The story is different when we start talking about plant food. Many people – even professional farmers and gardeners – are unsure how much nitrogen any given plant should receive. And here’s where things can get even murkier: Adding too much nitrogen in the form of fertilizer can alter the pH levels of your soil, and that can have disastrous consequences for crops and gardens alike.
In a nutshell, the pH level of your soil is how acidic or non-acidic it is. In chemistry terms, high pH means high alkaline, also known as “basic” (the opposite of acid), while a low pH level means the substance is acidic. Citric acid, for example, has a pH level of roughly 2.2. This explains why you pucker when you drink lemon juice. But not everyone knows how to test pH levels in soil.

To be sure, over-fertilizing is not the only way to lower the pH levels of your soil. Much depends on local geology and agricultural activity, in addition to topography, history and other factors. In other words, there are so many variables that sometimes it can be difficult to pin down precisely what might be causing your acidic soil.

Luckily, that doesn’t mean you’re helpless to combat it, especially if you use lime for soil pH control. There are several ways you can decrease the acidity of your soil and restore balance to your garden or fields. This is good, because controlling soil pH is essential for the health of your plants.

James White has a lot more to say on this subject. For more click here.

How to Start a Garden

If you can’t wait to transform your garden, then you need to do a bit of planning before you begin. Here are our tips to make sure that your garden works for the plants and for you.

Exposure

Whether you want to plant flowers or vegetables, you’ll need to take a look at what sort of sunlight exposure your garden gets. All plants have different needs when it comes to sunlight, so to get the best out of them; you have to take into consideration how they like their light.

Study your garden and make notes of any particularly shady or sunny areas.

Plan Your Plants

Once you’ve assessed your garden’s sunlight exposure, you should then plan your garden out. A vegetable plot needs at least a four by four foot plot of land, and for flowers you’ll need to plan out where they will thrive.

Get to Know Your Soil

Plants often need certain nutrients in the soil that they are growing in to be able to grow properly. You can enrich your soil through composting and fertiliser, but you’ll need to determine how much you have to do.

Storage

If you don’t have any storage for your gardening tools, then you may struggle to look after your garden as effectively as you might do. Planning in storage is therefore always a good idea. Think about the other things that you might need to keep outside, such as bikes, logs and even chickens if you are so inclined.

There are a wide variety of different sizes available when it comes to sheds, like the ones here from Sheds and Things. Allow for a little bit of expansion when it comes to your shed – you may want to expand later on down the line when your garden becomes a roaring success. You should make sure that you keep your shed well organised, so it doesn’t become a dumping ground for tools.

A potting bench is always a good idea if you have room for it, too, as it means you can garden even on a rainy day.

Seasonal Plan

If you only plant seasonal plants, then when the seasons over you’ll be left with bare soil again. Make sure that you always have plants, even if they aren’t necessarily in bloom the whole year round. Evergreen plants will keep your garden looking lush all year round. 

Tools

Before you begin, buy a spade, a garden fork, a hose, a hand trowel and a basket for moving soil around. You can (and will) add to your tool collection as you tend to your garden.

Everything you Wanted to Know About Artificial Grass

While you may not be the most enthusiastic gardener, you no doubt still aspire to have a picturesque and well kept lawn. This can be extremely difficult to achieve, especially during the autumn and winter months when austere weather wreaks havoc on plants, grass and varnished surfaces. For those of you who struggle to grasp either the mechanics or the joy of gardening, however, there are several steps that you can take to help you in your quest to maintain a beautiful and functional space. 

3 Things you Always Wanted to Know about Artificial Grass 
As a novice gardener who is not especially keen to learn, one of the first things that you should do is lay artificial grass. This means that you will not have to mow your front or back lawns, while the maintenance processes involved are far quicker and easier to implement. Consider the following facts about artificial grass and the products key benefits:

 

ñ     Can Artificial Grass be Laid Directly Onto Hard Surfaces?: One of the most common misconceptions concerning artificial grass is that it can only be laid on soft ground or previously turfed areas. This is untrue, as contemporary products sold through leading retailers such as Great Grass can be laid directly onto firm surfaces such as decking. If this area has been treated, laying artificial grass can be as simple as fixing it in place green tanalised timber screws. Most types of artificial grass can also be laid onto concreted areas, although adhesive often works as a more effective fixing agent in this instance. 

ñ     Is Artificial Grass Suitable for Children and Pets: All artificial grass products are designed and manufactured with practical needs of home-owners in mind, which in turn means they are suitable for both children and pets. With this in mind, artificial grass not only imitates the texture and resistance of grass, but it also hard wearing and able to cope with heavy traffic and footfall. To support this, you need only look at the number of British schools, kennels and catteries that lay artificial grass in their outdoor recreation areas. 

ñ     Does an Artificial Lawn Fade with Sunlight: Another misconception surrounding artificial grass is that it fades with sunlight, especially over a period of between 5 and 10 years. This is false, however, as the majority of retailers will place a 10 year UV guarantee on their products to safeguard your investment as a consumer. This is because contemporary artificial grass is manufactured using fibres that have UV stabilised, meaning that it is more durable when exposed to direct sunlight in an outdoor space.

 

Win An MTD Ride-on

Do you ever wander through the aisles at your local lawn and garden store and stare wistfully at the rider mowers? My husband does. He imagines himself on the back of a six-speed mower charging up hills and making tight circles around trees and other stationary objects. The wind is blowing through what's left of his hair, the sun brings out the sweat on his bare arms, and the smell of newly mowed lawn fills the air. At the end of his ride he looks back on the perfectly groomed lawn of his estate and smiles, pats the behemoth affectionately and heads for the barn.

"Imagines" is the key word here. Our lawn is a strip of parking six feet wide and 40 feet long with another tiny bit of grass near the house. It may take him 30 minutes, tops, to mow, edge and gather up the electric cord for the mower. There's no way we need a rider mower.

If you dream the dream of my husband, you may be able to win one. From now until March 14th, if you sign up for The Range's newsletter, you will be entered to win a six-speed 420CC MTD Ride-on lawn mower worth nearly £2000 or about $3,000 U.S.!!!



The winner will receive free delivery, full machine setup, first hand operational advice and an explanation of all its features.