Changing soil pH is an easy process and most people do it without realising it. Have you ever thrown the dregs of your coffee cup onto the garden? If so, you changed the pH in the direction of acidity. Changing the soil pH needs to be done slowly and mindfully. Read more…
The pH of the soil determines the availability of nutrients. As the soil becomes more alkaline or more acidic, particular nutrients become unavailable to the plants. Whether or not we need to alter the soil’s pH is determined by what we need our soil to do and how effective any Read more…
We want to test soil pH to make sure we’re planting the correct plants in our soil. We also want to test soil pH to decide whether we might want to alter the soil’s pH. Soil tester kits come in various forms and range from electronic metres, dry indicator strips Read more…
Soil pH is the degree to which soil is acidic or alkaline. It is a measure of hydrogen ions in the soil. The more hydrogen ions in the soil, the more acidic the soil becomes. The less hydrogen ions, the more alkaline. PH is a logarithmic measure and I’m sure Read more…
Cold compost is a process of helping organic matter to decompose over time and without the use of heat and thermophilic microbes. Homemade compost is usually cold composting. It’s called that because it doesn’t utilise thermophilic microbes to rapidly decompose organic matter. It doesn’t necessarily include heat. My article on hot Read more…
Hot composting is a process that rapidly decomposes and transforms raw materials into usable compost. It’s hot because it needs to reach at least 65 degrees Celsius (150 degrees F) for at least three days. Any part of the pile that doesn’t each those temperatures for a sustained period of Read more…
Manures can make an excellent fertiliser When we think about how to compost horse manure, we might think about how to compost any manure. Most manures can make an excellent fertiliser and horse manure is no exception. So long as the manure is from a happy and healthy animal, it’s usually Read more…
Fixing hydrophobic soil in dry pot plants Often we water our pot plants not knowing that they’re remaining dry under the surface and around the root zone. If we have hydrophobic soil in our pots, we can add as much water as we like, but without rectifying the situation, they’ll Read more…
Hydrophobic soil isn’t soil that’s afraid of water! It is soil, or dirt, that repels water not allowing water to soak in. Healthy soil with a balanced and diverse microbial population doesn’t tend to get hydrophobic. So healthy soil microbes living in healthy soil help prevent water repellence. What are Read more…
How to make healthy soil – transforming dirt into soil There are several key things we need to consider when we’re looking how to make healthy soil from a soil that is more like dirt. Is it even possible? When we talk how to make a healthy soil, we’re talking Read more…