To have a successful garden or potted plants/flowers the key ingredient starts with your soil. There are different varieties available in all sorts of different sized bags or in bulk form. Depending on your need for use of the soil, will depend on how much and what type to purchase.

If you are doing a top dressing on your lawn you will most likely need plenty of good screened soil or screened loam. This soil will have been put through a screening process to remove large chucks, rocks and weeds. It will add fresh nutrients to your lawn to help make it a lush, healthy lawn. Screened soil can also be added to your garden to also add nutrients and “bulk” up your garden site. By adding more soil to your garden site your plants roots will be able to extend wider and deeper into the soil, thus healthier and better productivity will be achieved.

A good soil for your flower pots is a mix of different ingredients. A garden mix soil or loam has a mix of compost, organic mulch and soil. This soil (with its compost material and organic mulch) will have enough nutrients in the soil to feed your plants throughout the growing season. Adding perlite will provide aeration and optimum moisture retention for better plant growth. Improving the texture, structure and workability of your soil is easily done by adding sand and organic matter in early spring before planting or late fall. Your soil should hold water well and drain easily.

Adding a Mulch to your flower beds will help with water retention, with weed retention and help with root insulation. A fine wood chip will do all these but will not be as decretive as a larger wood chip, and the gardener will need to replenish the mulch each year. Mulch should be applied on “fragile” plants (roses for example) for winter protection. A fine wood chip can be worked into your soil for composting and will help with water retention and air flow through the soil.

Plants draw nutrition from the soil, so as a gardener, keeping your soil well stocked and maintained is one of your most important jobs.

Happy Gardening!