Your Garden Soil

Now it is time to be digging up your garden plot. One of the most important things to have in a garden is soft fluffy soil, so plant roots can grow well. Roots are a very special part of the plant. They suck up water and nutrients (plant food) from the soil so that the plant can grow. They also keep the plant from falling over. If the soil is bad, the roots don’t grow well. Then the plant doesn’t grow well either.

There are many kinds of soil. Ground that is rocky doesn’t have much soil for roots to grow in. Sandy soil is soft and light, but it doesn’t have nutrients in it. It also dries out quickly, so the plant has a hard time getting water. Clay soil is opposite of sandy soil. Have you ever played with clay before? It sticks together and it gets hard when it is dry. That is the same way with clay soil, but it does have many nutrients in it. It also holds water for a long time.

Good soft soil is made when plants and other things die and decompose. That means they fall apart and turn into dark fluffy dirt. When leaves fall from trees and plants die in the autumn, it is the special way God set up so new plants could grow. It takes several years for this good soil to be made. Gardeners like to make their own good soil, called compost, to add to their gardens. They mix old leaves, cut grass or straw, vegetable peels and other kitchen scraps together. If animal manure is added, or everything is chopped into small pieces, the compost is made faster. When compost is mixed with other soil, the soil gets fluffier and softer: just right for those plant roots.

In Luke 8:5-15 Jesus tells a parable about different kinds of soil. God wants us to be like the good soil. He wants our hearts to be soft and willing to obey. But first Jesus has to give us a new heart, because everyone starts out with a hard selfish one. Soft hearts obey the Bible and do what is right. Do you know that God wants your heart to be like a garden full of fruit? The kind of fruit that He wants to grow in us is love, joy, kindness, gentleness, and many other good things. These can only grow in hearts that are letting Jesus have His way.

For your own little garden plot, dig up the soil in a 4-foot by 4-foot square. Add compost to your soil to make it fluffy and soft. Put wide boards around the edges for path ways. Now plant the tomatoes and lettuce you started, as the picture shows. You can grow more plants in the extra space.

Read more about it in Square Foot Gardening, by Mel Bartholomew