( - promoted by Jill Richardson)
(Also available in another shade of green)
Some of the plots over at the Hawthorne Community Garden in north Boulder have incredibly rich, dark brown soil. Others are reddish -- with little organic matter to mask the iron oxides that are in all the soil there. Oftentimes, the plots with poorer soil are visibly lower than those with good soil.
Each garden season, two things happen that entrench the disparity.
First, long-time successful gardeners add compost and aged manure, as well as turn under their cover crops, increasing the organic matter and overall fertility of the soil.
On the other hand, some of the more challenging plots may not have been given much in the way of soil amendments last year. They may not have received much care, either, so they're covered with perennial weeds. These plots can be made fertile, but it's a tough row to hoe, so to speak.
To make matters worse, there are plenty of plots on which the soil is actively impoverished each season. In an effort to get a handle on weeds, gardeners may pull them up and throw 'em away -- along with all the soil attached to the roots. That's a double loss: soil and the organic matter in the weeds. No wonder some plots are lower -- they literally have less soil.
This sweet clover, a common weed, has a huge taproot that helps gather nutrients from the soil. When turned under, the decaying plant provides organic matter to the soil. When a weed is discarded, part of the soil's fertility is discarded, too. |
Granted, turning under perennial weed species is asking for trouble. But it works quite well to throw the weeds on the surface of the soil and let them die in the sun. Once that's done, they can be used as mulch and will eventually return to and enrich the soil.
Productive soil is the key to a bountiful garden. If you're disposing of your weeds (especially if you're also throwing away the soil stuck to the roots), you're tossing out the ability of your garden to produce well. You're tossing potential salads, really.
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