PREPARING THE SOIL

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POTENTIAL HYDROGEN

First, a spade-wide layer of topsoil is removed from Strip A. Next, after the lower layer of soil in that trench is loosened with a garden fork, topsoil from Strip B is shoveled into the ditch in Strip A, and the dirt in the lower level of Strip B is loosened. This process is repeated down the row to the end of the bed. Finally, the topsoil from Strip A is used to fill in the remaining ditch.

The first thing you should test for is pH, that indicator of acidity or alkalinity. Balanc ing your garden's pH is important, because a soil that's too acidic (a pH of 6.0 or lower) or too alkaline (a pH of 8.0 or higher) will tie up essential minerals in the earth, making them unavailable to your vegetables.

If your soil is too acidic, you'll need to add limestone or hardwood ashes to your gardenon the day you break ground—to increase the pH. Be sure, though, to use only agricultural-grade (not hydrated, or slaked) lime . . . and if you have a choice, opt for dolomitic limestone rather than calcic limestone, because of the former's more favorable magnesium content. To raise your soil's pH one full point, you'll need at least 3 pounds of finely ground limestone per 100 square feet . . . and the denser your soil is, the more limestone you'll have to add. (Very heavy clays sometimes need as much as 8 pounds per 100 square feet.) Alternatively, hardwood ashes—which are fasteracting—can be applied at roughly the same rate as lime. Actually, you might be wise to use a combination of ashes and limestone, to give your garden both an immediate and a sustained boost.

On the other hand, your garden may be alkaline—particularly if you live in the Southwest—in which case you'll need to reduce the pH. A one-inch layer of peat moss, worked into the earth when you till or dig your plot, should lower the rating a point. You can also use agricultural gypsum, at a rate of 2 pounds per 100 square feet, for the same purpose.

INORGANIC ELEMENTS

After checking your soil's pH, you'll next be interested in its nutritional balance. Of the 216 elements that most affect plant growth, all but three must come from the soil. (The exceptions are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, which are derived mainly from water and air.) And among the most important of those remaining, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—the famous N, P, and K of commercial fertilizer formulas—are generally classified as major nutrients, while ten others are labeled minor, or trace, elements.

NITROGEN

As most gardeners know, nitrogen is essential to plant growth and vigor. It's often considered the nutrient that most promotes leaf development. (How're your spinach crops?) An ongoing supply of good compost and other organic matter should take care of the nitrogen needs of a healthy garden. To supplement the nitrogen of a soil that already tests out very high in that element, Jeavons—again, in his eminently useful book How to Grow More

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