Good soil is the most important first foundation for successfully growing roses, or any garden plant. The soil is a fascinating element and easy to understand. Your soil is a “living” entity. Inside it are organic and mineral components and beneficial fungi and bacteria for the soil that influence the health of your roses and plants and, consequently, the success of your plants. The trick is to make your soil “sexy” enough to attract those beneficial elements to your garden soil!
With just a touch of knowledge and understanding, you can turn this truly amazing item, your soil, into your best garden ally.
Good soil is vital for all forms of life… plants, animals… and us! Henry A. Wallace made an observation on target, back in 1938, in the US State Department of Agriculture Yearbook:
“The earth is the mother of all of us: plants, animals and men. Phosphorus and calcium from the earth build our skeletons and nervous systems. Everything else our bodies need, except air and sun, comes from the earth “.
Not many of us stop to think that the healthy development of our body depends on the soil of our Earth. Other species and plants, with their lives literally rooted in the ground, are directly connected to the earth.
Without soils, there could be no life on earth. All forms of life depend on this basic component of life. Humanity, however, is alone in the task of modifying the soil. We modify it to adapt it to our needs. Often, we have exhausted its vitality or destroyed it with toxic waste. We’ve chemically treated it, destroying friendly bacteria and fungi along with the bad ones. But, we also have the ability to improve it. Although much of the wisdom of the past has been lost over time, we have regained an understanding of the importance of natural parenting. We have at our disposal information that can help us give our plants the best of the basics… and with it, give ourselves the best.
Soil is a breeding ground for billions of microorganisms and a mechanical support for plant roots. The primary goal behind every addition of organic matter is to increase the biological life of the soil, but few gardeners understand this.
When we treat soils in a way that encourages beneficial bacteria and helpful fungi, plants grow better and our return on time, effort, and money increases. Your soil is more “attractive” and healthier for these beneficial “critters”, which are vital to the health and well-being of your roses and garden plants. This organically-enhanced, rich “sexy” soil attracts these vital organisms, will keep the vital forces that depend on each other growing, and will keep your soil “fertile” and life-enhancing.
Fungi and bacteria break down the food elements available in the soil into a useful form that can be taken up by higher plants. Soil organisms are important in another way: as they live and die, they absorb, hold, and then gradually release soluble nutrients that might otherwise be lost. Therefore, they increase many times the use of fertilizers.
Air circulation around the roots is also vitally important. If air doesn’t move freely around the roots, or when soil moisture fluctuates widely (sometimes wet, sometimes dry), or lacks a protective mulch, both plants and fungi suffer. Organic amendments can greatly improve this function.
If the native soils are rich, well-drained, and abundantly irrigated by rain, any crop adapted to the region will thrive. The problem is that very few of us are lucky enough to have the ideal conditions.
Likewise, most floors probably don’t need major amendments either. Proper attention to conditioning and amending the soil before the first few plantings of your roses, and simple, regular, and seasonal additions of organic amendments, such as compost, will make your soil “sexy” enough to attract and harbor all the necessary bio. -Necessary elements for healthy soil and keep it fertile enough to keep a smile on your rose petals!
