this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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Soil Science

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Where do I start with learning about the soil in my backyard? (self.soilscience)
submitted 10 months ago by auzas_1337 to c/[email protected]
16 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Long story short - I moved from a country where there’s an abundance of black soil to a country with a dry climate and not much black soil. Not only that, I moved from an apartment to a house with plenty of land. I believe strongly that growing my own produce is the way to go, but sadly I lack a lot of skill.

What I want to do is to plant a few plants, bushes and trees to get started with gardening, but I’m not sure whether the types that I want to plant will take well to the soil.

So the first logical step in my mind is to figure out what kind of a soil I’ve got and what it’s well suited for and can I make it work for some things that it might not be ideal for.

That’s why I was super hyped when I found this community, but it looks like people here are mostly posting articles and the discussions are more on the specialist/scientific side, so I hope my question doesn’t stick out as unwanted.

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[–] auzas_1337 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I’ll check the bokashi system. I was wondering about mixing soil too. Good to know that that’s a legit practice.

A part of my garden seems well suited for planting, lots of grass, it’s overgrown and hasn’t been used in many years. I’m particularly interested in getting blackcurrant bushes to grow here and I know they like dampness which is a bit of a problem where I live (European part of the Mediterranean). I’m a huge fan of berries, but barely any grow here that I’m aware of. For the rest of the garden I’m definitely aiming for natives.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I have adapted my text again and run it through a translation programme, as my English has room for improvement.

I would ask the neighbours which native plants thrive well. Native plants are always the best.

As far as I know, blackcurrant bushes are not intended for warm climates. Maybe you can protect their south side with small trees for shade and put them a little lower. Red grapes are probably better suited.

I'm a fan of mixing bought humus with the soil from the garden. This saves money and the native plants cope better with the soil they are used to.

In addition, I make my own soil with a compost heap and something similar to an upstream bokashi system. To keep rats out, all the kitchen scraps go into one of two 50 litre barrels with lids next to the compost heap. A bit of grass clippings in between speeds up the process. When one barrel is full, I fill the second barrel. When the second barrel is full, I empty the first barrel into the compost heap. The rats no longer like this half-composted waste and the whole thing turns into humus much more quickly.