Soil

Resources

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• Cover crops improve soil quality and nutrition.  Cover cropping in home vegetable gardens (PDF) describes what crops to plant and when and how to plant them.
  
  
• See the pH meters (PDF, 449Kb) tested by Sacramento County UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor Chuck Ingels and Master Gardeners.  Numbers 3 and 7 were the most accurate.
  
  
• Soils - Digging up the Dirt on Soils (video below) Building healthy soil builds healthy plants and can save water. Healthy soil acts like a sponge and soaks up much of the water that would otherwise run off the landscape.  Learn how to transform your dirt in this short video; some of the information is presented by Sacramento County UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor Chuck Ingels.

• Chuck Ingels, Sacramento County Farm and Horticulture Advisor spoke at Harvest Day 2012 about packaged soil amendments. "What's in that Bag?—Soil Amendments" describes the project and provides a link to the handout that accompanied his presentation.
  
  
• If you know the nature of your soil, you'll know the types of problems you might expect and ways to deal with them. Know Your Soil (PDF, 80Kb) tells how to analyze your soil. (EHN 55)
  
  
• Hardpan soils present problems; Garden and Landscape Plantings on Hardpan Soils (PDF, 78Kb) describes ways to overcome the difficulties. (EHN 53)
  
  
• Managing Clay Soil (PDF) in gardens and landscape plantings describes ways to improve clay soils. (EHN 54)
  
  
• Layered soils can cause growing difficulties for plants.  Improving Layered Soils (PDF) for garden and landscape plantings will help eliminate the problems. (EHN 56)
  
  
• This UC IPM article describes soil solarization, a non-chemical method to control disease and insect pests found in the soil, and help improve the soil structure. (PN 74145)

ANR = free publication from the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Catalog
PN = free publication from UC Integrated Pest Management
EHN = Environmental Horticulture Notes from the UCCE Master Gardeners of Sacramento County
GN = Garden Notes from the UCCE Master Gardeners of Sacramento County

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