Do you want to know the secret for a healthy, flourishing garden? The secret lies in your soil. If your soil is fertile and has all organic nutrients, then only it can support a proper garden. These days with the increasing popularity of chemical insecticides and pesticides, soil health deteriorates. With the amount of harmful chemicals increasing, soil is losing its natural strength. This in turn is affecting the health of plants in the long run. Plants gain their nourishment from the soil. If a soil loses its fertility, it adversely impacts the plant life. So, soil fertility is very important.

5 Easy, cost-effective tricks to build healthy fertile soil: –

In past times, soil used to regain their health over time. But in today’s fast-moving world, we can’t afford to leave our soils to regain their fertility. Therefore, we need tricks which are easy to implement, cost effective and is not very time consuming.

Animal manure to improve soil fertility: –

Animal manure is rich in various types of nutrients. They are very specifically rich in nitrogen and phosphorus, which are very essential for plant growth. So, to build healthy fertile soil, you need to shift from chemical fertilizers to animal manure fertilizers. These are organic in nature; thus, they do not have any harmful effects. They add all necessary nutrients to the soil and supports flourishing plant growth. Animal manure is easily available and simple to use. So, it is a very cost-effective option to improve your soil life. You can mix your manure to your soil and leave it to degrade organically. You need to aerate the soil occasionally, to allow better degradation. You can then use this compost to fertilize your soil. This way you can easily build healthy, fertile soil.

Vermicomposting- a trick to build healthy, fertile soil: –

Vermicomposting is a scientifically proven organic technique to build healthy fertile soil. In this technique, you need to just allow your kitchen waste or other bio degradable waste to decompose. In the decomposition pit a few worms like red wigglers, white worms are added. These worms help in decomposing the organic products and adds the nutrient to your soil. Vermicast is actually the end product obtained after breakdown of organic matter by worms.

This technique is very easy to implement and very cheap. To make the vermicomposting pit, you can dig a pit in your very own backyard. Into this pit, you need to add all your organic waste and cover it with soil. In this pit itself you have to add the worms. You can easily purchase vermicomposting worms from nearest nursery. The vermicomposting takes some time. During the process, do remember to turn the soil and mix properly to allow proper aeration. This technique is very easy and is sure to help you build healthy, fertile soil.

Cover plants to protect top soil and to build healthy, fertile soil: –

Soil usually tends to lose its fertility if it is planted too often or if it is left barren for too long. The soil is fertile owing to the organic matter in its top soil. If the soil is left barren, the top soil blows away, thus ruining the soil’s fertility. So, the soil shouldn’t be left barren. You cannot plant the soil continuously with crops too. So, you can use cover crops to help your soil gain back its fertility. Leguminous crops are the most common type of cover crop that is used.

These crops are rich in nitrogen and thus help in improving soil quality. Cover crops are grown till they reach full maturity. Then they are ploughed into the soil. This way they help in preventing soil erosion and also act as bio-degradable manure. There are various leguminous crops like barley, rye, oats. These leguminous crops will not only improve your soil’s health but will also provide fresh produce. So this is one of the most cost-effective technique to build healthy, fertile soil.

Grazing helps to build healthy, fertile soil: –

In this technique you have to have your cattle graze your field. This allows to mix the soil thoroughly. This also helps in burying unwanted plant into the soil which helps in adding nutrition to the soil further. This is a very easy but effective technique to build healthy, fertile soil.

Adding minerals and rock powders to build healthy, fertile soil: –

Depending upon the soil nature, different minerals need to be added to the soil. Major minerals like silicon, calcium, gypsum, magnesium is very important for plant growth. Silicon rock powders provide the necessary silicon to your soil. Lime also helps in providing required calcium, whereas dolomite provides adequate magnesium.

These tricks will surely help you to build healthy, fertile soil.