Shiraz Web Publications UL - Advice for Absolute Beginners

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Advice for Absolute Beginners		When I decided to produce this site I was reminded that not everyone is a gardening expert, and that there are those of us who have grown up in flats or otherwise, have no practical experience of gardening, and perhaps very little knowledge of plants in general. This section of the site is devoted to explaining a few basics of gardening; a more comprehensive explanation of the matters discussed will be found elsewhere on the site.
Gardening Terms Explained

Every gardener will be successful if they remember the six essential ingredients that plants need to thrive with little or no further help from anywhere else: -

Plants need light ~ Some require full sun, others full shade, and many others will enjoy a situation that rests somewhere in between the two extremes.
Plants need water ~ From water-garden plants that sit with their roots in water through to plants adapted to live in arid desert conditions, all plants need water to survive. Choose plants that are naturally adapted to the situation you have created for them and they will do their best to reward your efforts.
Plants need essential nutrients in the soil, which they can use to manufacture all the material required for growth ~ Provide annuals with too much food in the manner of fertilisers or a too rich soil and they will produce more leaf than flower, conversely Hedera (Ivy) are hungry plants and will soon deplete an under-nourished soil.
Plants need air, not only for the parts that are above ground, but also to allow their roots to breathe.
Plants need a soil with a pH (acidity/alkalinity) to which they are adapted; Magnolia, Rhododendron, Gentian, Pieris, and many other plants will die if planted in anything but acid soils, whereas Antirrhinum (Snapdragons) and similar plants prefer a soil that tends to be alkaline - Making an acid soil alkaline is easy, simply add lime; but making an alkaline soil acid is something that not even prayers can arrange, which is why many gardeners go to great lengths to produce raised peat beds and store all the rainwater they can collect.
Most plants resent being planted in ground that resembles play-dough in winter and concrete during the summer. This also applies to that beautiful lawn you want. Fortunately creating a good garden soil, whilst being very labour intensive, is one of the easiest tasks in the garden, especially if you can start your garden from scratch.

Worms

Once you have done your best to improve your ground with the ambition of producing a well-drained fertile loam, you should aim at introducing as many worms as you can lay your hands on. From the humble brandling which can be acquired at most local fishing tackle shops, right up to the feisty lobworm, which can be collected at night simply laying out across the soil surface with its broad and muscular tail anchored in its hole.

Worms provide a tireless workforce that will turn over and process more soil during a year than any gardener; they create drainage pathways and aerate the soil. Indeed having done the hard work of providing your worms with a home fit for a king, your worms will now do all the hard work of incorporating into the soil, any compost that you now lay down as a mulch, you should never again have to dig your garden to improve the soil.

Fungi

For many years now it has been a well kept secret amongst Organic Gardeners that various fungi growing in our soils, are beneficial to plant growth. Their mycelium breaking down woody tissue and releasing nutrients, and surprisingly trapping and feeding on eelworms, nematodes and other undesirable soil borne pests that would infect our plants.

I first experimented with adding fungi to my soil following a nature program which discussed the symbiotic relationship that various orchids have with specific fungi, where if the fungi were not present then the orchid would not grow. At the time it made sense to me that fungi were perhaps providing nutrients that are not freely available or perhaps are unstable in the soil, whereby plants did not have access to them, and thus I decided to experiment with adding fungi to my own soil.

It is now proven by research that not only do mycorrhizal fungi help many plants to absorb vital soil nutrients such as phosphorous and potassium through their roots, but they can also increase the tolerance of many plants to water-logged soils and improve their winter hardiness.