‘Tis the Season for Tending Soil
By the time temps drop in Boise, most gardeners are looking forward to ski season. Some are even so exhausted by their summer harvests that they don’t want to plant a winter crop. I get it! Dealing with row cover in freezing temperatures is not everyone’s favorite past time. But what if I told you there was something you could grow in the winter that required the smallest amount of effort up front? A set-it-and-forget-it slow cooker recipe for springtime success, if you will.
That thing you can grow all winter long with just a day of effort on the front end is your soil. That’s right, I hereby rename winter in Boise. From now on, it’s Soil Season, y’all.
Why is soil important?
At Gold Feather Gardens, we believe that soil can be the difference between stunted plants and ones dripping with fruit. That’s the main reason we plant in raised beds. Raised beds give us complete control over the soil quality and health, and we can keep building on our soil without disturbing its makeup each season.
Building rich soil is more than tearing open a bag and dumping it into a raised bed. Starting with good quality soil specifically for containers and vegetable growing ensures that you begin with good nutrition. As plants grow, however, they will absorb the nutrients out of the soil, and it’s important to keep adding those nutrients back in.
If you think of how a wild tomato grows on a river bank, it’s just about the opposite of how a plant grows in your garden. A wild tomato grows in a fertile area where animals will pass by, eat its fruit and leave their, well, contribution. That then breaks back down into the soil. GFG’s approach to gardening starts with building soil naturally by adding compost and other naturally derived fertilizers like bone meal or rock phosphate. This is especially important during the high-production time of summer growing and at the end of the season.
A lot of gardeners go nuts for compost when the spring temperatures begin to warm, but adding compost is not akin to waving a magic wand. Compost takes time to break down and good soil takes time to build. I prefer to add compost or heavier soil amendments at the end of the growing season, so spring starts off with a bang and all I’ve got to do is plant directly into that rich, silky soil.
How does that work exactly?
The compost or soil builder will utilize the moisture and freeze/thaw cycles of winter to decompose naturally. All those nutrients will then settle throughout the garden bed so that spring plants can immediately begin to feed off the nutrition when they take root. This makes them grow bigger, faster and ensures a healthier plant overall.
If your garden beds are cleaned up for winter and don’t yet have a good layer of leaf litter, compost or soil building conditioner, I’d love to help you get your garden ready for the winter season. There’s still ample time to utilize the freeze/thaw and precipitation of winter to break down those soil amendments, but we’ve got to make the most of the good weather we’ve got now.
Are you in?
Reserve a springtime coaching session by purchasing a gift certificate this month and you’ll receive a free 20-minute virtual soil building consult. During the consult, we’ll talk about how much to add to your soil this season and discuss your goals for spring. In the spring, you’ll receive a planting plan and a shopping list for seeds, soil amendments and plants, and you can use your coaching session to get your garden planted and ready to grow.
This is an incredible gift to give the gardener in your life. Plus, all gift certificates come attached to a potted paper white kit pictured here. They look so cute under the Christmas tree!