Gardening and Landscaping Stack Exchange
Gardening and Landscaping Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [soil-amendment]

About modifying a soil's content.

Soil amendments are any additives which are added to a soil to change its characteristics. Amendments can include (but are not limited to):

  • Fertilizers
  • Compost
  • Lime
  • Rock chips
  • Sand
  • Bark chips
  • Biochar
  • Vermiculite

Amendments can change the acidity (pH), water-holding ability, drainage, nutritional content, and inoculate against some diseases.

Use this tag for all questions where a general soil amendment tag is appropriate. Questions about specific amendments should use the specific tag for the amendment.

170 questions
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Is it possible to add too much compost?

I'm going to be amending my garden soil soon, after I take care of all the rocks, so I'll be dumping in a lot of compost to fix the horrible clay soil I'm left with. Should I be worried about adding too much compost, or should I just add as much as…
The Flash
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How can I improve the soil in a new allotment, which is covered in wild grass?

I am in the process of getting hold of a standard style UK allotment, 10 poles or about 10x25m (2722.5 sq. ft., .052 acres) The plot will be covered mostly in wild tall grasses, and is likely to have been that way at least 6 months to a year. The…
Oliver
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Improving soil for grass

My lawn is slowly being taken over by clover, I would be ok with this if the clover and the grass embraced diversity, but instead there are patches of one or the other. I understand clover likes soil with low nitrogen levels which probably explains…
treeNinja
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Strategy for a new flower bed in poor soil

I have a small area in front of my house with some grass and existing shrubs. I want to make an L-shaped flower bed in my space without disturbing the existing shrubs. I have removed some of the grass and dug a bit to airate the soil. I have…
user1261710
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Southern California Sandy Hillside - Stabilization

We recently purchased a home that has a fairly steep hillside in the back. I haven’t measured the grade but I’d say it’s somewhere between 35-45 degrees. You can walk it fairly easily. My question for folks here is pretty broad. I don’t know what I…
Bradley
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How do I fix copper toxicity in my soil?

I made a mistake and installed a retaining wall in my garden made out of creosote-treated wood from an old bridge, which contains chromium copper arsenate. Our strawberries planted below the wall shortly began to wilt, and our raspberries followed…
jstaab
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Additions to an existing rice husk mulch for fixing soil nutrients?

I have a small garden that i just mulched using rice husks with 2-3 cm deep without incooporating them into the soil. Rice husks are very abundant here in Indonesia. But lately from my googling around, I noticed that wood chip mulch seems to be…
Bertie
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Sul-po-may and blood meal at the same time?

My university extension suggested a combination of sul-po-mag and blood meal to increase my vegetable garden's potassium and nitrogen. Link: How to increase nitrogen and potassium at the same time? I read up on the two and found that both are to be…
nuggethead
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Is deep soil mixing necessary for compacted clay soil before planting a tree?

I am a newbie gardener, and would like to plant around 15 polyalthia longifolia trees in my garden. The main problem here is that my garden's reddish-clay-soil seems to be compacted. Clay sticks under my sandals. No worms in the compacted…
Bertie
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Whats up with my grapevine

Im located in south Jersey Soil is clay but was amended with leafcompost, micronutrients stuff and topped with 4" woodchips. Only watered it when planted and monitored the moister level before watering again...So I planted this grapevine in spring.…
Joseph Wit
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Keep adding, but never removing soil in a raised bed ...how is that possible?

All the advice seems to be to add a few inches of compost every fall to a raised bed, but no one mentions taking soil out; how can you just keep adding soil to a raised bed ...I mean surely it will fill up and then what? Should you dig half out and…
daveheee
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Deiffenbachia (Dumb Cane) houseplant

I have watered it according to the instructions, my indoor temp is around 70-75 F° I moved it closer to this backdoor about a week ago and haven’t given it any nutrients after transplant.
MaryanneL86
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A section of land/soil is bad due to salt? How to fix?

A section of a alfalfa farm soil is bad. It is told that the cause is salty soil. What can be done to fix the soil? Update edit As requested by @csk , the source of the salt is: well, the land has been a salty desert and has been converted to farm…
Megidd
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How to make well-drained sandy soil from potting mix?

I want to plant sage, which is said to grow best in well-drained "sandy soil". I bought some potting mix from the hardware store. Is off-the-shelf potting mix already sandy, well drained soil? Assuming I would get better results with a "sandier"…
glenviewjeff
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Can we use coco and peat moss at same time?

As a soil mix, is it wise to use both coco peat and peat moss to have the good of both the worlds? Since some plants requires soil to dry out in between watering, peat moss will compact and pull away from the edges of the pot. It also gets a lot…
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