The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God´s heart in a garden,
Than anywhere lese on earth.[break]
- Dorothy Fances Gurney in ´Garden Thoughts´
One of the nicest things about gardening is that it teaches you to look at the bright side. It helps one decide that Nature will always see you alright in the end.
“I opened this nursery 19 years back and beyond the shadow of a doubt, the way people see gardening has changed drasticallys,” says Bansi Maharjan from the Maharjan Nursery, Maharajgunj. “As opposed to being used solely to worship deities, now-a-days people have increasingly started to take a keen interest in gardening,” he adds.
Gardening permeates beyond being just a therapeutic activity. It can help every parent teach the children one very fundamental lesson for life, i.e., respecting other living things.
This lesson can be a very tough one to teach. But it is a great bonding activity with one’s child and with the nature. Your child will learn the nature’s mighty works and it could be quite an addictive affair, but with all the good reasons and outcomes. It is also said that those who play the most with nature are the happiest people on earth.
The basics of gardening
“The fundamental thing to grow healthy plants is to provide the right soil conditions,” says Bansi. It calls for recognizing the soil type in your garden and making the best use of it.
Clay
Clay is smooth, not gritty, often wet and sticky and slimy in winter and brick like in summer. It is usually rich in plant food and can hold moisture even in dry summers. It is receptive to physical, chemical and organic matter which will decompose by physical, bacteria and activity in the soil. “During my grandfather’s time, we dug deep and upturned soil called ‘Kangcha’, and it made the topsoil fertile”.
The completely decomposed material in soil is called humus. Humus gives rich nutrients to plant foods and gives the soil “body” and encourages the retention of food, water and air. It particularly helps to make the clay more workable by breaking down the mass.
However, clay has its drawbacks, too. When wet, its small particles stick together and solidify the soil into an almost airless mass. During winters, it takes a long time to warm up. Seeds take a long time to germinate because of its heaviness and lack of air. “Such soil is very difficult to cultivate in,” says Bansi.
The book “The Gardening Year” suggests that if you are a long-haul gardener, spread garden lime all over the dug soil during autumn and let the weather work on it till spring. Lime makes it loose and easily cultivable. For lasting improvement, dig in large quantities of organic manure early in the spring each year. This rots the soil down and gradually improves its structure and color.
Sand
Sand is crumbly, light, dry and rough to handle. It warms up quickly, so cultivation can begin early in spring. It is airy and allows plant roots to grow strongly and deeply. It is excellent for vegetables, especially root crops, when sufficient organic matter is added to retain water.
However, it is poor in plant food, and whatever little is present is washed beyond the reach of plant roots by water. To improve the quality of the soil, manure, peat and compost must be dug in deeply every year. This helps the plants get nourishment and helps the moisture retaining abilities of the soil. Watering the plants with nitrogenous fertilizer is advantageous throughout the growing season. During spring and summer, it needs to be watered frequently.
Chalk or limestone
This soil often appears as the topsoil. It is recognizable by lumps of chalk or limestone, especially underneath the topsoil. This soil is easy to work with. Free draining makes it warm up quickly in spring and good for rock garden plants.
However, it lacks humus and plant food. It is difficult to work with when wet and dries out easily during summer. The calcium in them prevents plants from using the nourishment. Large amounts of farm manure and their organic matter, mostly in the top layer of the soil, helps the soil break down into humus that provides necessary nutrition for the plants.
Fertilizers added as top dressing throughout the cultivation period helps nourishment.
Peat and loam
Peat is spongy to touch. It has plenty of half decomposed organic matters. It may be acidic in nature but is very fertile if treated with garden lime. Peat is easily worked with but is often deficient in plant foods and is waterlogged; so drainage needs to be taken care of. Preferably, soaking it away through drainage pipes .
On the other hand, loam is dark and crumbly. It has a balanced combination of sand, clay and humus that make it an ideal garden soil. “We call combination soil ‘pango mato, it allows plants to breathe while supports healthy growth,” says Bansi. However, the proportions may need to be looked into regularly, and it may require springtime addition of organic matters to keep it form fertility depletion.
“Use ‘Pina’ (mustard cake) as organic compost in the soil for good results,” Bansi lets the cat out of the bag.
