A GROWING CONCERN: Get down and dirty with garden soil

Published 1:30 am Saturday, April 11, 2026

I TALKED A little last week about how I’m actually a “soil guru,” but that’s only because nothing is more important and directly affects your plants more than the soil they live in. No matter how great a plant you pick, how wonderful it is placed, watered, fertilized and cared for, no matter what, if your soil is not correct and prepared properly, it is all a waste.

With that said, the absolute best deal around is to phone your County Conservation District (Clallam County 360-775-3747 or Jefferson County 360-385-4105) and get their soil analysis kit. This simple kit, for less than $35, will give you not only a complete analytical profile of your soil, it will give you the recommended amount of additives for the crop you are growing.

By writing down what crop (i.e. lawn, orchard, flowers or landscape) you desire to grow, the soil test will recommend the exact amount of additives and nutrients to add to achieve optimum growing conditions for that specified crop. How cool is that?

With that all-important soil test explained, let us get down to the dirt on your soil.

Right now, this week or next, is the ideal time to prepare your planting areas. These would include, but not limited to:

• All containers, pots or boxes.

• Vegetable garden.

• Flower beds.

• Perennial beds.

• Cut flower areas.

• Soil pile.

In these specified areas, soil structure is the name of the game, and the best ornamental soil medium is achieved by including the maximum amount of individual structures or particle sizes in your soil. Crumbly soil is the soil type we are all striving to achieve, and this is done by having a variety of soil particle sizes.

I adore pistachios and I like peanuts in the shell. I save them both. And why? Eggshells and coffee grounds, both of which I save in buckets, combined together for four different ingredients to be added into the soil compost, peat moss, sand, perlite, manure, vermiculite, bark and leaf mold are all great additives and unique particle sizes as well.

Crumbly soil, the ideal soil profile for ornamentals, is made by attaining a soil rich in particle diversity. With numerous components sizes, soil cannot compact easily.

Compaction is the demon responsible for soil fertility, because pore space (the air gaps between soil particles) is the key to healthy, fertile, highly productive soil.

Water is the mechanism of soil productivity for the plant. Water collects in the pore space and dissolves minerals and nutrients so microscopic that feeder roots can absorb the nutrient-rich solution. Compact soil cannot hold enough water in the diminished pore space due to compaction to adequately feed the plant.

Add numerous particles sizes (manure, peat moss, and, compost etc.) to your soil. Do this now this week!

Work up your soil by adding topsoil, sand, leaf mold, compost, sawdust, coffee grounds, eggshells, even worm castings or straw (but only use less than 10 percent in volume of fresh non-rotted organics).

By tilling up soil additives now, along with adding lime and fertilizer, a great bed will await your future plantings.

Lime, bonemeal, alphia pellets, wood ash, granite dust, kelp meal, milorganite and blood meals — all these organic nutrients — take four to six weeks at today’s temperatures to become readily available. And that is the final block that builds solid foundation for your summer plants.

Add your varied particle sizes, then till and test your soil. Next, add nutrient and/or lime as your soil test dictates.

Then in April and May (spring), the planting season will be here, and your soil will be ready and fertile for planting.

Contour and shape your beds as well! Shape maximizes and increases the visual angle. Remember, a sloped bed has far more visual impact from a greater distance.

The time you spend now on soil preparation is the most productive garden time of all.

And stay productive by staying well!

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Andrew May is a freelance writer and ornamental horticulturist who dreams of having Clallam and Jefferson counties nationally recognized as “Flower Peninsula USA.” Send him questions c/o Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362, or email news@peninsuladailynews.com (subject line: Andrew May).