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If you want to grow vegetables in ground or in containers, it is important to know that your harvest will be more productive if you have organic matter in your soil. Organic matter is mostly broken-down, old, dead plant material. You might have heard other gardeners talk about compost. Well, compost is a very good source of organic matter for your garden. Compost has lots of nutrients in it that those once living plants absorbed from the soil, themselves, when they were alive. Once compost breaks down it releases these materials back into the soil. These materials can then be reused by your garden plants and will be brought in through their roots along with the water they absorb. Compost also supports the right types of bacteria in the soil. Gardening specialists are learning more about the importance of bacteria and their work of breaking down materials and releasing useable nutrients back into the soil. Fresh plant material is not good either – as the bacteria use up some of the needed nutrients that your garden plants want to break down these old, rotting plant materials. Always make sure to use well-rotted compost to condition your garden soil.
Some gardeners mix a bit of fertilizer into the soil as they plant their seeds. This is fine if done so sparingly – but it is better to fertilize your plants once they are established. It is very important that you don’t over fertilize your plants.
Nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (N, P, and K) are the main nutrients that are needed in larger amounts by most plants, but some micronutrients might need to be provided. Micronutrients include boron, zinc, manganese, and sulfur, to name a few.
