Cultivation
@belindayhughes (1096)
United States
March 1, 2013 3:20am CST
Cultivation is an important practice for gardeners. Cultivation means loosening the soil. A cultivator is a hand tool that looks like a fork. The prongs dig into the soil and break up clumps. This practice aerates the soil, loosens it up and helps gardeners find and eliminate rocks, weeds and anything else that doesn't belong. Having loose soil allows for adding soil amendments like peat moss, compost or components to adjust your soil's pH. Whether you've got a square foot raised bed or an arbor of fruit or nut trees, a little regular cultivation can yield big dividends at harvest time. Just remember to schedule your cultivation prior to watering, so as not to disturb wet plants, which would open the door for pests and diseases.
1 response
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
2 Mar 13
We are very fortunate in that the area that we live has excellent grade soil and it is very easy to dig and has great texture, other parts of the country are not so fortunate in that their soil is more clay based which makes it harder to cultivate.
1 person likes this
@belindayhughes (1096)
• United States
5 Mar 13
Heya wolfs! You are very lucky to have good soil that is easy to cultivate and care for. The native soil where I'm at is iron oxide clay, which creates an iron plate under my raised beds. Therefore, I created the soil in my raised beds and containers, topped with MiracleGro potting soil and MulchPlus. It's much easier to cultivate and becomes more cultivation friendly with each passing year, the more I learn about soil and am better able to care for it. At the moment, it's my fruit trees' turn for cultivation.
