What is Sifting the Soil?

A number of gardeners have asked "What do you mean when you say sifting when you talk about soil rejuvenation." 


Cheryle ready to sift the soil in her bed

That is really a good question and it isn't necessarily obvious. Sift? You sift flour and sugar together when making a cake to lighten the texture but how does that work with soil rejuvenation and bed preparation.

 In the garden we use a huge wheelbarrow as our "bowl" and have a piece of hardware cloth nailed into a wooden frame as our "sifter". Place the frame over the wheelbarrow, shovel dirt on top of it and then move the dirt around with your hands.

Sifting removes lovely critters like these grubs (Yuck).  Grubs are really bad critters to have in your vegetable bed since they eat the roots of your tender seedlings. The other bad bugs you want to look for are wireworms and centipedes.

Wireworms eat into root vegetables which spoils them and centipedes eat tiny earthworms. You want earthworms in your garden bed because they are beneficial to your soil structure. The earthworms aerate and leave behind worm castings which is highly desirable.

The other reason you sift the soil is to remove rocks and sticks as well as make the soil "fluffy". If you are trying to grow carrots the lighter and fluffier the soil the better. Also, if a carrot hits a rock or stick, it has to grow around or over it and you end up with carrots that aren't straight and perfect.

The good news is that once you sift your bed to remove "stuff" you don't have to sift it again unless you add amendments that have large bits of "stuff" in them.

Vicki

Soil Moisture - The Tree Bears Way

Too DRY - notice it is pouring out of my hand

Yes...the Three Bears are visiting the garden again! Before you work on your soil or try to plant, you have to look and determine, is the soil TOO wet, TOO dry or JUST right.

 If it is too dry, that is easily solved. Water lightly, wait a couple of hours and then the soil moisture content should be just right. If it is too wet you have to wait for it to dry out.

Too WET - notice it is a wet clump ready to bake

But what if we enter a rainy spell! You need the bed (soil) to dry out but you don't want the rain (or sleet and snow) to add more moisture to the bed than is already there. It can be very aggravating trying to get the timing right. See the previous post about covering your bed to keep OUT rainwater out.  Using plastic to keep water out

It is hard to describe what Too Dry, Too Wet and Just Right look like. Once you learn it, then you just know it. Hopefully these pictures are worth a thousand words!

Why does it matter? If the soil is too dry, it doesn't tuck around the roots of the plant easily. Too wet you create clumps that dry and make hard lumps.  Just right is when the soil stays where you want it and is loose and friable, a total delight to work with.



Just Right
 a clump but it is breaking apart easily

Why keep water out of your bed?

Greg just used a tarp and weighed it down with his bags of dirt
Notice the puddle of water in the back corner that collected
from a rain.

You've decided that now is the time to turn your bed and prepare it for spring. After looking at the weather forecast you see there is one day in the middle of the five day forecast that it is going to rain and put more moisture in your bed than you want. (Too much moisture in the soil when you are working with it destroys the soil structure.)

What to do, what to do.

Why you can do what Vann did and Greg, Cheryle and Dianne are doing. Put a lovely layer of plastic on your bed! That way when it does rain, it runs off and the soil is still workable.

Cheryle bought a roll of plastic to use. The remainder of the roll
is in the shed on the counter and can be used by anyone.

One other thing to remember, look at the hourly weather predictions each day besides just the 10 day forecast. Sometimes the hourly shows rain is likely while the 10 day doesn't show any rain. You don't want to have an unpleasant surprise when the hourly is right!

Be sure and cover your soil if you intend to plant and rain is predicted before you'll  be able to do so.  Otherwise, you'll have that pesky too wet to plant situation to wait out.

The extra effort really pays off!

Dianne used two shower curtains.

The Annual Cobb County 4-H Sale is here again

There is still plenty of time to support the Cobb County 4-H Club plant sale

Cobb County 4-H Club is having its annual plant sale and prepaid orders will be accepted through Friday, March 7th. This year’s assortment includes blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, figs, muscadines, Admiral Semmes azalea, crape myrtles, edgeworthia, heuchera, forsythia, viburnum, quince, ferns and loropetalum.

Plants must be picked up at Jim Miller Park on Saturday, March 15 (one day only) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For more information about the plants, including pricing and specific varieties available, pick up a copy of the 4-H Plant Sale flyer-and-order-form at the Cobb County Cooperative Extension office or download one from our website. To download, go to the homepage, then click on the button below the words

Two free seminars will be presented. The first one will be on Monday March 3rd, 6:30 - 8:00pm - Growing and Caring for Ornamentals.  The 2nd one is Growing and Caring for Fruit Plants which willl be presented 6:30-8 p.m., Wednesday March 5th.

Both classes will be held at at the Cobb County Water Lab, 662 South Cobb Drive , Marietta. Registration is required. For more information, visit Cobb County Extension or call 770-528-4076.