Why You Should Be Checking Your Soil

About This Episode

 A reader has a question about dying plants. Plus, the tip of the week.

Question Of The Week

“A corner of my backyard that gets good light keeps killing whatever I plant there. First it was coneflowers, then shasta daisies, and then a rosebush. Will having a soil test help find the problem? I feel that I’m just throwing my money away.” – Joanne

Grumpy Gardener: Maybe the soil stays too wet. Maybe it’s too dry. Maybe it contains a lot of heavy clay that makes plants struggle. Maybe there’s a nutrient problem. Maybe the pH is off. For all of these things, a detailed soil test is a good starting point. Many state cooperative extension service systems offer these. So when you get your soil test done, they’re gonna have a little, form for you to fill out, and be sure to thoroughly describe the problem when you send in your soil sample and it’ll tell you if your soil is really terrible for the plants you’re growing, what you should do about it. I think the first thing to do is check the soil.

Tip Of The Week

Since we were talking, we’ve been talking about clay and it’s bad for plants. So here’s a tip on how to loosen clay soil without going nuclear. All right. Now, clay soil is the bane of many a gardener in, the South because when it gets wet or it gets compacted, it gets very hard. It’s very hard for roots to move through it. It doesn’t drain well, water just kind of tends to pull up on top of it, and plant roots can rot, and it’s just hard to deal with. It sticks together, and you know, when it rains or you’ve watered and it gets kind of greasy and it, it just sticks together in a big ball. And then when it dries out, it’s like concrete. So it’s not good for plants. So if this is your soil, what can you do about it?

Well, one thing you can do is, you can build a raised bed atop all the clay, and you can fill it with about a foot of good topsoil. So all the plant roots will be in the good soil and not go down on the clay and be bothered. But if you can’t do that, then the best way to loosen that clay is to work in lots and lots and lots of organic matter into the soil. Because, what happens is, the more organic matter that you, till into the soil, it kind of coats the particles of the clay and it keeps them from sticking to each other. And so you get a better aerated and a loosened soil. And that means that water and air can really pass through the top layers of soil and get all the way down to the roots. So if you have lots of clay, just remember you can use, composted cow manure. You can use soil conditioner, you can use chopped up leaves, any kind of compost that comes from your kitchen, and just work it into that clay soil, and do that every year. And before long, believe it or not, you will have decent soil.

About Ask Grumpy

Ask Grumpy is a podcast featuring Steve Bender, also known as Southern Living’s Grumpy Gardener. For more than 20 years, Grumpy has been sharing advice on what to grow, when to plant, and how to manage just about anything in your garden. Tune in for short episodes every Wednesday and Saturday as Grumpy answers reader questions, solves seasonal conundrums, and provides need-to-know advice for gardeners with his very Grumpy sense of humor. Be sure to follow Ask Grumpy on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen so you don’t miss an episode.

Editor’s Note: Please be mindful that this transcript does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.