Reasons And Ways To Use Organic Soil Amendments

 

If you have ever cared for a lawn or garden, chances are that you have used a soil amendment, such as lime or compost, at least once in your life. Organic soil amendments are often confused with fertilizers, but they also tend to play a different and important role. You will be able to make the most of your lawn and garden by understanding what soil amendments offer.

How the soil amendments work
Amendments are added to soil to help change and improve it. Unlike fertilizers, which add nutrients to the soil, amendments modify the condition of the soil itself. The condition of the soil and specifically its suitability for supporting plant roots is what the experts call “tilth”. When the tilth is right, plants tend to experience healthy growth.

Used properly, the organic amendments and fertilizers alter the soil so growing becomes a lot simpler. For instance, the roots penetrate the surrounding soil more easily and water infiltration improves. The soil amendments also change the soil in ways that affect the availability of plant nutrients that occur naturally or that are added by fertilizers.

In new lawns and gardens under regular cultivation, soil amendments are mixed down into the soil, often well before planting time. In established lawns and ornamental plantings, the soil amendments are applied to the surface and watered in, so that grasses and other plants are not disturbed. Unlike the mulches, which are placed on top of the soil and are meant to stay there, amendments are meant to get down into the soil and get to work.

Fertilizers happen to impact plant growth directly, while the soil amendments tend to affect growth indirectly and sometimes deliver nutrients as a bonus. Soil amendments are not fertilizer substitutes. Instead, they help the fertilizers do the job that they are intended to do by getting tilth and other factors in order.

By using these amendments, you will end up making your soil much healthier and much better for plant growth. Healthier soil results in healthier plants growing in your garden.