What feeds your yard and gardens naturally besides sun and rain?

Soil! Most plants need a well-balanced, well-draining, fertile soil to thrive. The top one to six inches of soil is the most vital and hold about 70% of the life of plants but what is a well-balanced soil?

There are several elements necessary for a well-balanced soil and here are the most commonly known:

• pH< – acidity and alkalinity of soil is measured by pH the ideal fertile soil range is 6.3 to 6.8
• Calcium – balances nitrogen, neutralizes toxic materials, increases cell density.
• Phosphorus – storage and transfer of plant energy, root development, and disease resistance.
• Potassium – essential for photosynthesis, promotes root reserves, increases yield.
• Nitrogen – predominant role and needed in large amounts but is usually deficient; an example is compost
• Magnesium –  is needed with phosphorus, essential in chlorophyll (Green grass)
• Boron – promotes increased sets of flowers, fruit, seeds, and quality; necessary for nitrogen conversion.

To know what your soil needs you can test your soil at home with a home soil test kit available at most garden centers or through seed catalogs, or you can send a sample to the PA Department of Agriculture.

This is a list of the soils Conestoga Stone carries to balance or improve your soil.

• Mushroom Compost – organic substances are processed into a loamy consistent homogeneous by-product. Mushroom compost is great to add to any soil mixtures for much needed nutrients.
• Leaf Compost – has many nutrients especially nitrogen; is good to put underneath your mulch as a natural fertilizer if your soil is already well-balanced.
• Soil King – is ideal for new yards or new garden beds it has most all nutrients needed to grow beautiful vegetation the first year.
• Premium Topsoil – is nutrient-rich with small amounts of sand for good drainage.
• Screened Topsoil – not as nutrient-rich as premium topsoil but is more economical for large spaces and filling in holes in your yard.
• Raw Top Soil – is usually used as a top-dressing on brand-new yards may contain small stones and has a fair amount of nutrients.
• Raw Fill Dirt – only needed underneath top soils and top dressings; contains clay, rocks, some sand; not high in nutrients; ideal for backfilling walls and basements.

If you have your soil tested and it only needs one or two maybe three special nutrients we also carry fertilizers. Come in and talk with Kevin to see what is best for your yard and Gardens.

 

It is already March, and spring is at our door step! That means it is time to Mulch. When you look outside it is grey-brown but we all seem to forget the hurry spring is in once the days get longer and the sun shines warmly. With in a few days everything turns green, the air smells like newly turned earth, and those birds and nature are just bursting with excitement.

You may be walking around your yard and looking at your “empty” flower beds and gardens and brown grass. They won’t be empty or brown for long!

Have you ever tried mulching in June when all the plants are in full bloom? It is not fun! Lifting each flower and leaf and going around everything, is very time and energy consuming to say the least. Give your perennials and bulbs a good start by mulching before they bloom so they can grow to their full beauty and potential. Here are some tips on how to mulch effectively.

When you mulch in March you are giving your plants an encouraging blanket of warmth, and allowing them to hold and retain water. In our experience, it is so much easier to let the flowers grow up through the mulch.

 Take a look at our past News/Blog posts and be inspired with some of these ideas for your yard.

 

Come in and talk with our Manager Kevin about what you may need to create a new garden or to encourage your existing garden to be even more beautiful than ever.

 

We serve customers in and around, Coventry, Pottstown, Glenmoore, Morgantown, Birchrunville, Chester Springs, and Elverson areas.